A  Business  Life  Story 


By 

John  Adams  Thayer 


OUT  OF  THE  RUT 

A   BUSINESS  LIFE   STORY 
A  REVISED  AND  ENLARGED  EDITION 

OF 

ASTIR 

(American  Edition  —  Small,  Maynard  &  Company) 

GETTING  ON,  THE  CONFESSIONS  OF  A  PUBLISHER 

(English  Edition  —  T.  Werner  Laurie) 

LES  ETAPES  DU  SUGCES,  SOUVENIRS  D'UH  'BUSINESS 

MAN '  AMERICA.IN —  (French  Edition) 
BY 

JOHN  ADAMS  THAYER 


G.  W.  DILLINGHAM  COMPANY 

PUBLISHERS  NEW  YORK 


Copyright,  /9/J. 
BT  JOHN  ADAMS  THAI 


Entered  at  Stationen'  Hall 


MANY  people  have  wondered  how  I  dared 
to  print  these  intimate  confessions  of  my 
business  life. 

It  never  occurred  to  me  to  consider  it 
an  act  of  daring  to  tell  the  simple  truth  as 
I  saw  it,  any  more  than  it  did  to  look  upon 
it  as  a  daring  thing  to  come  back  and  do 
what  I  have  told  about  in  the  last  chapter 
of  this  book,  hitherto  unpublished  in  the 
French,  English  and  American  editions. 

JOHN  ADAMS  THAI  ER 


2128597 


DEDICATION 

I  HAVE  been  told  so  many  times  that  this  is 
an  unusual  kind  of  book  that  I  am  persuaded 
to  believe  it.  If  it  is  unusual,  it  should  have 
an  unusual  dedication.  It  is  customary  for 
the  author  of  a  book  to  dedicate  it.  In  this 
case,  the  representative  press  of  the  country 
shall  be  the  sponsors  for  the  dedication. 

A  large  number  of  enthusiastic  critics  have 
pointed  out  that  the  book  is  likely  to  be  of 
great  help  to  young  men.  For  instance,  the 
New  York  Times  says,  "  It  is  a  great  book  for 
young  men  to  read,  for  almost  every  chapter 
is  an  object  lesson  on  how  to  get  along  in 
business  in  a  legitimate  way  ;  "  The  Seattle 
Post-Intelligencer  says,  "It  will  prove  most 
helpful  to  the  youths  who  have  to  fight  the 
battle  of  life,  for  it  will  show  them  that  where 
there  is  a  will  there  is  a  way  ; "  and  the  Phila- 
delphia Public  Ledger  says,  ' '  It  should  be  read 
by  every  young  business  man  who  aims  at 
making  a  success  in  his  career  in  a  clean, 
legitimate  manner." 

This  edition  of  the  book  is  therefore  dedicated 
to  The  Young  Men  Of  America. 

THE  AUTHOR. 


CONTENTS 

CHAPTER  PAGB 

A    GoifFTOENCB IX 

1  A  PUBLISHER  AT  THIRTEEN      ...  i 

2  A  UNION  PRINTER 19 

3  TYPEFOUNDING  BEFORE  THE  TRUST      .  3 9 

4  ON  THE  ROAD  FROM  TEXAS  TO  MAINE  55 

5  A  TYPE  EXPERT  IN  PHILADELPHIA      .  77 

6  ADVERTISING     MANAGER    OF    * '  THE 

LADIES'    HOME    JOURNAL  "      .      .  97 

7  A  MONTH  AND  A  DAY  WITH  MUNSEY  .  123 

8  A  YEAR  WITH  A  NEWSPAPER   .      .      .  i53 

9  BLEACHING  A  BLACK  SHEEP      .      .      .  177 

10  THE  FIGHT  FOR  GLEAN  ADVERTISING  .  191 

11  MY  MASTER  STROKE  IN  ADVERTISING  207 

12  PUBLISHING  "EVERYBODY'S"  .      .      .  223 

1 3  THE  DISCOVERY  OF  TOM  LAWSON       .  2^7 

1 4  DIVORCED  —  WITH  ALIMONY  .      .     .  271 

1 5  OUT  OF  THE  RUT        ....  298 
INDEX 


A  CONFIDENCE 


A  CONFIDENCE 


FTER  thirty  years  of  hard  and 
unremitting  work  in  the 
business  world,  circum- 
stances arose  which  divorced 
me  from  my  fulfilled  am- 
bitions. The  alimony  was  all-sufficient 
and  I  went  to  live  in  Paris.  There  I  met 
many  famous  men.  Talking  one  day  with 
an  author  who,  though  highly  successful, 
produces  what  the  critics  agree  with  the 
public  in  calling  literature,  he  said  :  ' '  You 
publishers  do  not  pay  us  ten  cents  nor  five 
nor  even  a  cent  a  word  for  what  we  write. 
There  is  not  one  of  my  books  of  which 
whole  chapters  have  not  been  recast  three 
and  four  times.  Pages  of  manuscript  are 
written,  rewritten,  then  destroyed,  to  be 


XI 


A  CONFIDENCE 


done  afresh.  I  have  worked  for  days  over 
a  few  hundred  words  which  would  not  fill 
a  page  of  an  ordinary  book.  Writing  is 
work,  and  the  hardest  kind  of  work.  The 
man  who  digs  with  pick  and  shovel  in  the 
street  has  an  easy  job  in  comparison." 

As  I  thought  over  his  words  I  wondered 
if  I,  too,  could  not  write  a  book.  I  be- 
lieved I  had  something  to  say.  If  the  art 
of  writing  came  by  work  and  work  —  and 
yet  more  work  —  there  was  hope  for  me. 
Had  I  not  written  and  rewritten  advertise- 
ments till  they  passed  muster,  and  in  the 
end  realized  large  sums?  But  an  adver- 
tisement—  while  it  may  be  a  short  story 
—  is  rather  a  distant  relation  of  a  book. 
How  should  I  clothe  my  ideas  to  fit  them 
for  the  polite  society  in  leather  and  cloth 
on  the  world's  great  bookshelf?  I  envied 
the  trained  writer  who,  knowing  the  style 
of  many  men  —  the  lucid  Howells,  the 
picturesque  Gautier ,  the  descriptive  Dickens 
xii 


A  CONFIDENCE 

—  could,  as  I  thought,  fashion  to  his  own 
ends  the  diction  that  best  suited  his  theme. 
I  know  now  that  a  writer,  if  he  is  sincere, 
does  not  pick  this  or  that  style  as  a  printer 
chooses  this  or  that  font  of  type.  Good  or 
bad,  it  must  be  as  much  a  part  of  him  as 
his  character. 

But  this  I  had  to  learn,  and  while  I 
was  groping  for  light,  someone  told  me  to 
read  the  memoirs  of  a  famous  general. 
At  the  end  of  the  first  chapter  I  put  the 
book  aside,  for  it  told  only  of  ancestors. 
I  have  ancestors  myself  —  one,  they  say, 
made  himself  felt  in  William  the  Con- 
queror's day — but  their  dim  ghosts  played 
no  part  in  my  world  of  actualities,  and 
plainly  had  no  business  in  my  book. 
Disappointed  in  my  general,  I  decided  to 
tell  this  story  in  my  own  way.  Dates  and 
figures,  which  bore  most  people,  I  have 
avoided.  Details  I  have  given  when  details 
seemed  significant,  and  old  letters  and 
xiii 


A  CONFIDENCE 


scrapbooks,  preserved  from  boyhood,  have 
repeatedly  recalled  them  with  a  precision 
which  no  memory,  however  retentive, 
could  equal. 

Though  it  was  my  good  fortune  to  know 
some  of  them  intimately,  I  have  not  essayed 
to  depict  or  characterize  the  employers  and 
co-workers  with  whom  I  have  touched 
elbows  in  my  business  career.  I  have 
merely  set  down,  in  all  sincerity  and  with- 
out prejudice,  a  few  plain  truths,  and  I 
trust  that  the  most  romancing  spirit  will 
see  naught  else  between  the  lines. 

This  autobiography  is  a  story  of  hard 
work,  not  luck.  To  quote  an  appreciative 
friend  :  ' '  When  a  man  starts  as  a  printer 
and  makes  a  habit  of  working  unlimited 
hours  a  day,  using  every  pound  of  pressure 
and  energy,  developing  every  atom  of  his 
originality  and  initiative,  I  don't  think  it 
particularly  lucky  if  he  arrives  somewhere 
at  the  end  of  forty  odd  years.  It  recalls 
xiv 


A   CONFIDENCE 


Maurice  Barrymore's  remark  at  billiards, 
when  he  made  a  twice  round  the  tahle  shot 
on  a  fluke,  which  caused  his  opponent  to 
drop  his  cue  and  exclaim:  "  Holy  God !  " 
With  his  sweet  smile,  Barrymore  replied: 
"No,  not  wholly  God.  I  was  in  it,  too." 
Hard  work  has  entered  into  these  pages, 
hut  with  the  work  has  come  pleasure.  To 
live  one's  business  life  over  again,  as  I 
have  here,  is  a  privilege  which  few  know. 
With  the  optimism  which  has  been  my 
lifelong  tonic,  I  send  this  book  forth. 
American  youth  is  ambitious  to  do  some- 
thing worth  while.  As  I  see  it,  there  is 
but  one  legitimate  road  to  that  goal. 


XT 


CHAPTER  ONE 
A  PUBLISHER  AT  THIRTEEN 


CHAPTER   ONE 
A  PUBLISHER  AT  THIRTEEN 

'HEN  as  a  mere  child  I  went 
upon  the  platform  at  a 
Sunday  School  concert  and 
recited : 

"When  I'm  a  man,  a  man, 
I  '11  be  a  printer  if  I  can,  and  I  can," 
I  was  probably  as  heedless  of  the  real 
meaning  of  the  couplet  as  I  was  of  its 
prophecy.  Led  to  a  seat  beside  my 
mother,  I  sat  with  my  hand  in  hers  and 
heard  the  other  boys  declare,  "  I  '11  be 
a  lawyer,"  and  "I'll  be  a  preacher  if  I 
can,  and  I  can,"  with  equal  unconscious- 
ness that  these  callings  also  would  figure 
among  my  future  ambitions.  As  adver- 
tising then  ranked  as  neither  art,  trade, 
3 


A   PUBLISHER    AT    THIRTEEN 

nor  profession,  it  found  no  place  among 
these  stimulative  jingles. 

I  don't  know  where  I  got  the  idea  of 
becoming  a  preacher,  but  I  did  entertain 
it.  In  fact,  I  have  in  my  scrapbook  a 
twenty-five  year  old  letter  from  the  sec- 
retary of  the  Boston  Unitarian  Association 
acknowledging  my  application  for  assist- 
ance, and  promising  its  serious  consider- 
ation. The  matter  went  little  further, 
however.  I  consulted  my  dear  old  friend, 
Daniel  Monroe  Wilson,  author  of  the 
well-known  book,  "  Where  Independence 
Was  Born,"  then  pastor  of  the  first  Uni- 
tarian Church  of  Quincy,  Massachusetts, 
and  I  remember  that  while  he  did  not 
advise  me  against  entering  the  ministry, 
he  spoke  of  the  small  salaries  received  by 
ministers,  of  his  own  many  charges,  and 
of  the  difficulties  he  had  met  in  trying  to 
make  his  sermons  please  the  important 
men  in  the  church,  and  at  the  same  time 
4 


A   PUBLISHER    AT    THIRTEEN 

interest  the  women.  I  felt  then  that  I 
had  a  "  call "  to  preach,  but  I  have  come 
to  doubt  its  force.  Had  it  been  serious, 
nothing  would  have  stopped  me  from 
following  my  bent.  At  that  period  too 
many  young  men  without  funds  burned 
to  undertake  the  cure  of  souls,  but  since 
even  the  clergy  confuse  their  sources  of 
inspiration  it  is  not  surprising  that  the 
lay  mind  often  goes  astray.  It  was  one 
of  the  cloth  who  in  later  years  told  me  the 
story  of  a  brother  minister  who  resigned 
a  charge  of  many  years  to  accept  a  parish 
only  ten  miles  away.  ' '  I  feel  that  I  am 
called,"  he  said.  A  practical  member  of 
his  vestry  inquired  what  salary  the  new 
parish  was  to  pay,  and  on  receiving  his 
answer,  dryly  remarked:  "Dear  brother, 
that  is  not  a  call,  it 's  a  raise." 

As  for  the  law,  that  was  my  father's 
idea,  as  was  the  idea  which  grew  out  of 
it  and  determined  my  career.     A  native 
5 


A   PUBLISHER    AT    THIRTEEN 

of  Vermont,  my  father  came  in  early 
manhood  to  Massachusetts  at  the  time 
Stunner,  Wilson,  and  Wendell  Phillips 
were  spurring  people  to  think  about  the 
great  issues  which  had  their  final  settle- 
ment in  the  War  of  the  Rebellion.  He 
took  an  active  interest  in  the  problems 
of  labor,  abolition,  and  currency  reform 
and  became  known  as  a  man  of  sterling 
principle;  fearless  speech,  and  as  an  un- 
compromising opponent  of  slavery.  My 
mother's  interest  in  these  matters  was 
no  less  keen.  She  had  early  developed 
a  talent  for  writing,  and  even  as  a  girl 
had  been,  with  Lucy  Larcom  and  Mary 
Livermore,  a  contributor  to  that  once 
famous  journal  of  her  birthplace,  "The 
Lowell  Offering."  In  later  life  she  wrote 
much  for  the  local  papers  of  Cambridge, 
the  "Boston  Commonwealth,"  and  "The 
Woman's  Journal ;  "  while  the  ' '  Christian 
Leader"  contained  weekly  contributions 
6 


A   PUBLISHER   AT   THIRTEEN 

from  her,  both  prose  and  poetry.  Of 
such  parentage,  I  was  born  in  Boston, 
February  20,  1861,  two  weeks  before  the 
inauguration  of  Abraham  Lincoln,  and 
received  my  father's  name.  Several  horo- 
scopes, given  me  for  my  amusement  in 
after  years,  agree  that  on  that  date  Mars 
and  Jupiter  were  in  friendly  juxtaposition, 
and  therefore  I  could  be  considered  lucky. 
So  I  have  been  considered,  but  inasmuch 
as  for  twenty  years  after  my  schooldays 
my  lot  consisted  of  hard  work  at  long 
hours  for  small  pay,  I  have  concluded  that 
luck,  as  Matthew  Arnold  said  of  genius, 
is  largely  a  question  of  energy.  I  am 
willing  to  concede,  however,  that  it  was 
a  piece  of  good  fortune  to  begin  life  in  a 
community  which  from  colonial  times 
downwards  has  smelled  of  printer's  ink. 
This  local  characteristic  had  beyond  doubt 
its  influence  in  shaping  that  second  idea 
of  my  father's  which  I  mentioned  at  the 
7 


A  PUBLISHER   AT   THIRTEEN 

top  of  this  long  paragraph.  His  future 
lawyer  must  have  an  education,  and  realiz- 
ing that  the  "printing  art,"  as  he  called 
it,  was  a  great  educator,  he  purchased  for 
me  in  my  thirteenth  year  a  small  printing 
press  and  a  few  fonts  of  type. 

I  began  by  printing  calling  cards  at  ten 
to  twenty  cents  a  dozen,  and  as  it  was 
then  a  fad  for  young  people  to  exchange 
them,  I  soon  put  money  in  my  purse. 
Within  a  year  I  had  made  enough  to  buy 
a  small  foot-power  press,  and  by  adding 
to  my  fonts  of  type,  I  was  able  to  print 
business  cards  and  do  other  modest  com- 
mercial jobs.  My  ambition  outran  this 
little  success,  however,  and  I  launched  a 
four-page  monthly  paper  about  four  by 
six  inches  in  size.  I  called  this  pygmy 
"The  Printer,"  and  at  the  head  of  the 
editorial  column  styled  myself  ' '  Editor  and 
Publisher."  Under  the  caption  "Terms" 
one  might  further  read  that  the  paper  was 
8 


A    PUBLISHER    AT    THIRTEEN 

to  be  had  for  ten  cents  a  year,  a  prudent 
stipulation  adding  that  the  annual  postage, 
which  amounted  to  twelve  cents,  was  to 
be  paid  by  the  subscriber.  The  advertising 
rates  were  as  tempting  as  the  price  of  sub- 
scription. Three  cents  would  purchase  a 
line  of  Long  Primer  or  what  is  now  known 
as  ten-point  —  I  had  no  Agate ;  while 
fifteen  cents  would  insure  a  whole  inch 
of  publicity  placed  beside  "pure"  reading. 
But,  as  for  securing  advertising,  I  recall 
no  precocious  signs  of  fitness  for  the 
business  I  was  eventually  to  follow.  Such 
as  I  obtained  was  chiefly  taken  on  the 
"exchange"  basis,  and  some  fruit,  candy, 
or  a  bunch  of  mild  cigarettes,  for  strictly 
private  consumption,  would  in  a  twinkling 
exhaust  the  earnings  of  an  inch  of  space. 
My  real  profits  were  indirect.  I  picked 
up,  self-taught,  the  rudiments  of  a  valuable 
trade,  and  I  absorbed  enough  of  the  "lead 
poisoning  of  type,"  to  borrow  Oliver 

9 


A    PUBLISHER   AT    THIRTEEN 

Wendell  Holmes'  phrase,  to  color  my 
whole  future.  "Keep  on,  John,"  said 
Charles  Walker,  superintendent  of  the 
famous  Riverside  Press,  from  whom  I 
used  to  buy  scrap  paper  for  my  diminu- 
tive monthly ;  ' '  some  day  you  will  be 

the    head  of   a  publishing  house  as   big 

,i  •    »> 
as   this. 

Meanwhile  I  shared  the  usual  pastimes 
of  the  American  schoolboy.  For  us  Gam- 
bridge  lads  there  was  swimming  in  the 
Charles  at  an  old  dilapidated  fort  called 
the  "  magazine,"  some  boating,  and  an 
occasional  excursion  across  the  bridge  to 
the  Beacon  Park  race  course  in  Brighton. 

We  did  not  sit  in  the  grand  stand.  A 
few  of  us  knew  a  secret  passage  under 
a  corner  of  the  fence,  which  for  a  number 
of  seasons  escaped  the  vigilance  of  the 
guardians  of  the  Park.  The  best  race  I 
thus  saw  was  the  one  in  which  Goldsmith 
Maid  trotted  a  mile  in  2.i4,  the  record  at 
10 


A    PUBLISHER   AT   THIRTEEN 

that  time.  If  there  were  no  races,  we 
boys  would  ourselves  make  trials  of  speed 
for  a  quarter  of  a  mile  or  more.  One  of 
my  companions  was  John  Clarkson,  who 
afterwards  gained  celebrity  as  a  baseball 
pitcher.  He  was  then,  in  fact,  the  pitcher 
of  a  club  called  the  "Centennials,"  which 
I  captained.  One  match  game  with  a 
Boston  club  I  can  never  forget.  Both 
pitchers  were  excellent,  and  at  the  end  of 
the  fifth  inning  neither  side  had  made  a 
run.  The  "Centennials"  were  on  the 
outfield,  Clarkson  had  struck  out  two  men, 
and  excitement  ran  high.  My  position  at 
this  critical  juncture  was  that  of  catcher, 
and  as  gloves  and  masks  were  expensive, 
our  club  did  not  possess  them.  The  up- 
shot of  this  enforced  economy  was  disas- 
trous for  me.  Clarkson's  next  ball  was  a 
foul  tip,  and  as  he  already  had  much  of 
the  speed  for  which  he  was  celebrated  later, 
it  shot  through  my  hands  and,  striking  my 
ii 


A    PUBLISHER    AT    THIRTEEN 

mouth,  knocked  me  down.  Obliged  to  go 
to  a  neighboring  house  for  repairs,  I  found 
on  my  return  that  our  opponents  had  made 
three  runs .  I  was  able  to  resume  my  pi  ace , 
however,  and  as  the  rival  pitcher  lacked 
Glarkson's  staying  power,  the  Boston 
Club  went  home  defeated.  I  bear  with 
me  yet,  unnoticed  by  the  world,  some 
results  of  that,  to  me,  famous  game  of 
ball. 

As  for  my  education,  in  the  literal  sense 
of  the  word,  it  was  sound  so  far  as  it 
went.  I  was  graduated  from  the  Webster 
Grammar  School  and  attended  the  High 
School  for  about  a  month.  Many  a  time 
since  I  have  wished  that  I  could  have  con- 
tinued, for  it  is  this  latter  training,  even 
more,  perhaps,  than  a  college  course, 
which  is  the  young  man's  mainstay  when 
he  enters  business.  But  my  people  were 
poor,  a  livelihood  had  to  be  gained,  and 
so  it  fell  out  that  the  composing  room 
12 


A   PUBLISHER  AT    THIRTEEN 

became  my  high  school  and  the  world  my 
university. 

I  sought  work  in  a  printing  office  as  a 
matter  of  course.  It  was  the  natural  thing 
to  do.  I  had  not  only  handled  my  own 
type ;  I  had  almost  all  my  boyhood  neigh- 
bored and  had  the  freedom  of  the  Riverside 
Press.  Knowing  the  superintendent  and 
many  of  the  workers,  I  had  become  familiar 
with  every  branch  of  the  business.  Thus 
it  was  that  I  found  my  first  employment, 
not  as  an  office  boy,  but  as  a  bona  fide 
printer.  My  pay  was  five  dollars  a  week; 
my  hours  were  from  seven  to  six. 

The  story  of  the  next  five  years  may  be 
briefly  told.  It  was  a  struggle  to  rise  by 
shifting  from  one  printing  office  to  another. 
Sometimes  a  change  would  mean  slightly 
more  pay;  or  again,  the  same  wage  with 
a  better  opportunity  to  master  the  business. 
So  it  was  that  in  those  five  years  I  worked 
in  seven  different  places,  and  thereby 
i3 


A   PUBLISHER   AT   THIRTEEN 

gained  invaluable  experience,  for  practically 
every  printing  office  has  its  distinct  line  of 
work.  For  example,  with  my  first  em- 
ployer, Daniel  Dwyer,  of  Sudbury  Street, 
Boston,  I  got  my  first  knowledge  of  news- 
paper work,  for  he  printed  "The  Daily 
Hotel  Reporter,"  a  paper  which  chronicled 
the  hotel  arrivals,  the  weather  probabilities, 
and  information  of  like  value .  The  weather 
report  came  late,  and  as  in  those  days  there 
was  only  an  hourly  horse  car  to  Cambridge, 
the  tardy  item  often  compelled  me  to  choose 
between  a  tedious  wait  for  the  pottering 
car  or  a  walk  home.  Many  a  night,  as  I 

«/ 

tramped  over  the  Charles,  I  kept  myself 
awake  by  singing  "I  stood  on  the  bridge 
at  midnight,"  but  though  it  was  the 
same  old  bridge  of  Longfellow's  song, 
the  clocks  somehow  always  struck  a  later 
hour. 

The    poet    himself  was    an    occasional 
visitor  to  the  composing  room  of  one  of 
i4 


A   PUBLISHER   AT   THIRTEEN 

my  places  of  employment.  This  was  the 
University  Press  in  Cambridge,  the  oldest 
printing  establishment  in  America  and  the 
home  of  many  famous  books.  I  recall  that 
I  worked  on  a  new  edition  of  ' '  Uncle 
Tom's  Cabin"  among  others,  and  it  was, 
of  course,  his  own  volumes  which  brought 
Longfellow's  snowy  locks  and  beard  amidst 
our  dingy  toil.  Of  charming  personality, 
and  a  manner  at  once  dignified  and  sweet, 
it  was  a  pleasure  to  the  workmen  even  to 
see  him,  while  to  have  a  word  with  him 
in  reference  to  a  piece  of  his  work  in  hand 
was  counted  a  great  honor. 

Changing  from  shop  to  shop  as  I  did 
puzzled  my  friends.  It  made  it  difficult 
for  them  to  keep  track  of  me,  and  it  also 
caused  them  to  believe  that  there  was 
something  radically  wrong  in  my  makeup. 
Yet  during  these  migrations  my  salary  in- 
creased by  successive  stages  till  at  nineteen 
I  held  a  permanent  situation  at  twelve  dollars 
i5 


A  PUBLISHER   AT   THIRTEEN 

a  week,  with  a  prospect  of  a  small  advance. 
But  I  was  too  ambitious  to  be  content  with 
this,  and  having  heard  much  of  the  success 
of  a  few  young  men  who  had  followed 
Horace  Greeley's  historic  advice,  I  decided 
to  throw  up  my  position  and  go  to  Chicago, 
which  meant  West  to  me.  It  conveyed 
another  meaning  to  my  fellow  workers  in 
the  printing  office,  however.  They  had 
planned  to  give  me  a  bowie  knife  and  a 
revolver,  but  on  learning  that  I  was  only 
going  to  Chicago,  decided  that  I  would 
need  nothing  of  the  kind,  and  presented 
me  with  their  good  wishes  instead. 

I  remember  distinctly  the  day  I  went 
down  to  draw  my  last  week's  salary.  The 
leading  member  of  the  firm  looked  over 
his  glasses  kindly,  but  not  sympathetically, 
and  said: 

"  So   you  are    going    to   Chicago,    are 

?»» 
^  . 

"  Yes,"  I  replied. 
16 


A   PUBLISHER   AT   THIRTEEN 

' '  Have  you  a  job  out  there  ?  " 

"No." 

"Well,"  he  said,  "I  guess  you'll  get 
one;  you've  a  good  trade.  But  remem- 
ber 'A  rolling  stone  gathers  no  moss.'  ' 


CHAPTER  TWO 
A  UNION  PRINTER 


CHAPTER  TWO 

A    UNION    PRINTER 

?T  this  time  trade  unionism 
was  not  deeply  rooted  in 
Boston.  So  lax,  in  fact, 
was  its  grip  that  members 
of  the  Typographical  Union 
were  allowed,  if  they  chose,  to  work  at 
a  lower  wage  than  the  fixed  scale  of  fif- 
teen dollars  a  week.  In  Chicago  the 
situation  was  far  different,  and  hefore  I 
started  West  I  was  strongly  urged  by 
one  of  my  fellow  workmen  to  join  the 
union  in  Boston,  and  obtain  a  traveling 
card,  permitting  me  to  work  in  all  offices 
throughout  the  country.  As  this  implied 
a  jump  from  twelve  to  eighteen  dollars  a 
week,  the  prevailing  scale  in  Chicago,  I 
21 


A   UNION   PRINTER 


lent  a  willing  ear.  But  on  looking  into 
the  question  of  eligibility  I  found  the  con- 
stitution prescribed  that  a  union  printer 
must  be  twenty-one  at  least,  and  have 
worked  as  many  years  as  an  apprentice  as 
love-sick  Jacob  first  agreed  to  serve  for 
Rachel.  It  seemed  to  me  that  I  had  run 
against  a  dead  wall,  but  my  friend  re- 
assured me  by  saying,  that  although  I 
was  only  nineteen,  my  knowledge  of  the 
business  was  such  that  he  felt  warranted 
in  arranging  the  matter  for  me,  which 
he  did. 

Thus  equipped,  I  began  a  journey 
which  etched  itself  on  my  memory  as 
many  of  far  greater  scope  have  not. 
For  one  thing,  I  had  my  first  and  only 
ride  on  an  engine,  an  experience  I  have 
never  yearned  to  repeat,  as  the  engineer 
derived  more  amusement  from  me  than 
I  did  from  his  hospitality. 

The  railroad  by  which  I  went  on 
22 


A    UNION    PRINTER 


account  of  its  low  fare,  quite  upheld  its 
inglorious  reputation.  There  were  count- 
less delays,  an  accident  to  the  engine, 
and  a  loss  of  nearly  a  day  in  the  schedule, 
but  arrive  we  did  at  last  and  I  began  my 
hunt  for  work.  The  value  of  my  travel- 
ing card  was  at  once  made  plain.  Within 
two  or  three  days  after  I  reached  Chicago 
I  found  employment  at  the  union  scale. 

Unfortunately, the  disadvantage  of  union 
membership  also  developed.  My  position 
was  temporary,  the  dull  season  came,  and 
I  found  myself  in  the  street,  handicapped 
by  the  local  prohibition  against  accepting 
less  than  the  standard  wage.  The  work 
was  there.  Again  and  again  during  those 
weeks  of  idleness  I  could  have  had  it.  At 
last  I  came  across  a  most  tempting  open- 
ing. A  foremanship  in  an  office  publishing 
a  number  of  educational  papers  offered  a 
kind  of  experience  which  had  not  previ- 
ously come  my  way.  It  was  not  a  union 
28 


A    UNION    PRINTER 


shop,  however,  and  its  pay  fell  two  dol- 
lars short  of  the  prescribed  scale.  I  de- 
cided that  the  situation  was  desperate  and 
needed  a  desperate  remedy.  But  what? 
Long  pondering  persuaded  me  to  appeal 
to  authority  against  the  cast-iron  rule. 

Acting  on  this  idea,  I  called  on  the 
secretary  of  the  Typographical  Union,  and 
was  by  him  passed  along  to  the  chair- 
man of  some  forgotten  committee,  whom 
I  found  in  the  composing  room  of  the 
"Inter-ocean"  making  up  the  paper  for 
the  day.  In  this  forum  I  pleaded  my 
case.  I  was  out  of  work ;  I  needed 
money;  if  I  could  have  permission  to 
accept  this  lower  wage  until  another 
opportunity  came,  I  would  not  only  re- 
lieve my  necessity,  but  keep  a  "rat"  out 
of  a  job.  I  think  this  latter  argument 
must  have  struck  him  as  new.  "Rats," 
as  non-union  men  were  called,  were  not 
regarded  with  favor  in  Chicago,  and  as  I 


A   UNION    PRINTER 


waxed  eloquent  on  the  wisdom  of  exclud- 
ing them  from  work,  I  perceived  that  my 
court  of  appeal  was  duly  impressed.  The 
permit  was  granted  and  I  took  the  coveted 
place  till  the  dull  season  passed. 

The  fact  that  I  was  now  for  the  first 
time  a  foreman  impressed  me  but  little, 
for,  bound  as  I  was  to  keep  my  promise 
to  secure  union  work  as  soon  as  possible, 
I  knew  my  authority  would  be  brief. 
The  value  of  this  stop-gap  lay  in  the 
character  of  the  shop  itself,  which  bore 
out  my  father's  belief  that  the  printing  art 
was  a  great  educator.  This  office  was 
different  from  any  of  my  former  places, 
and  the  various  educational  books,  papers, 
and  pamphlets  which  flowed  from  its 
presses  gave  me  at  once  an  insight  into 
the  care  one  must  expend  on  work  of  this 
kind  and  widened  my  notion  of  my  calling. 
In  the  popular  fancy  a  printer  is  an  ink- 
smudged  pressman,  or  a  compositor  who 

25 


A   UNION   PRINTER 


sticks  the  type  of  a  book  or  daily  news- 
paper ;  but  just  as  there  are  many  branches 
of  the  business,  so  there  are  many  kinds 
of  printers.  Used  in  its  broad  and  proper 
sense,  the  term  "printer"  means  much, 
and  brings  to  mind  not  only  the  names  of 
men  like  Gutenberg,  Gaxton,  and  Frank- 
lin, but  a  whole  train  of  reflection  on  the 
force  which  the  art  they  practiced  has 
exerted  upon  human  history.  Taking  the 
rank  it  did,  the  shop  of  my  temporary 
foremanship  could  not  fail  to  influence  a 
youth  eager  to  get  on,  but  besides  the 
benefit  I  had  from  the  character  of  its 
output,  I  enjoyed  the  special  advantage 
of  frequent  talks  with  the  cultivated 
gentleman  who  held  the  chair  of  editor. 
On  publication  day  the  last  hour  before 
going  to  press  was  usually  devoted  to 
changing  words  in  particular  passages, 
and  this  hour  the  editor  would  spend 
with  me.  To  this  day  I  marvel  at  the 
26  * 


A   UNION   PRINTER 


ease  with  which  this  expert  would  trace 
words  back  to  their  original  source  that 
he  might  use  the  ones  which  most  authori- 
tatively expressed  his  thought. 

The  slack  season  over,  I  readily  found 
work  with  the  J.  M.  W.  Jones  Company, 
one  of  the  largest  printing  offices  of  that 
period.  Here  again  was  another  phase 
of  the  business.  They  called  themselves 
railroad  printers,  and  although  they  also 
handled  poster  and  job  work,  the  printing 
of  rate  books,  coupon  tickets,  thousand- 
mile  books,  and  the  like  was  their  princi- 
pal feature.  Few  things  could  be  more 
tedious.  For  a  fortnight  I  saturated  my 
brain withUP,  D&RG,  CB&Q,  C&A, 
PRR,  etc.,  as  I  set  up  a  route  book  for 
the  use  of  ticket  agents  throughout  the 
country.  Seeing  no  glimmer  of  progress 
ahead  of  me  in  this  sad  stuff,  I  chose  an 
opportune  time  to  buttonhole  the  foreman 
and  tell  him  of  my  training  for  the  higher 
27 


A    UNION    PRINTER 


forms  of  job  work.  This  means  the 
typography  of  letterheads,  booklets,  invi- 
tations, and  such  orders  from  manuscript 
copy,  and  is  a  class  of  work  which  barely 
one  out  of  a  hundred  ordinary  compositors 
can  perform.  Owing  to  the  illness  of  one 
of  the  men,  I  was  given  a  trial,  and  ac- 
quitting myself  satisfactorily,  I  was  retained 
in  preference  to  many  employees  of  longer 
service,  who  were  laid  off  when  dull  times 
again  came  round. 

In  this  office  I  participated  in  my  only 
strike .  Conducted  with  admirable  dignity , 
it  vividly  impressed  me  at  the  time,  and 
I  think  deserves  mention  here.  I  have 
already  pointed  out  that  the  Typographical 
Union  in  Chicago  was  a  powerful  organi- 
zation. Each  large  printing  office  had  a 
"chapel,"  so  called,  and  whenever  a  local 
difficulty  of  any  sort  arose,  the  chairman 
had  merely  to  say  the  word  and  the  matter 
would  be  discussed  on  the  spot.  One 
28 


A    UNION    PRINTER 


afternoon  there  came  to  my  ears  the  same 
sound  Mr.  Speaker  makes  when  he  calls 
the  House  of  Representatives  to  order.  It 
was  the  chairman  of  our  chapel.  He  had 
no  gavel,  but  his  liberal  use  of  a  mallet  on 
the  marble  slab,  found  in  all  printing  offices 
for  the  imposition  of  type  pages,  brought 
us  flocking  round  him  instantly.  When 
all  the  hundred  or  more  compositors  were 
assembled,  he  said  that  a  number  of  mem- 
bers had  requested  him  to  call  a  special 
meeting,  and  with  this  brief  preface  asked 
a  compositor  named  Gummings  to  state 
the  case.  Mr.  Gummings  was  also  brief. 
' '  There  are  few  men  here, "  he  said,  ' '  who 
are  satisfied  with  the  present  foreman.  I 
don't  question  his  ability  as  a  printer  or  his 
efficiency  as  an  executive.  The  volume  of 
work  he  turns  out  daily  is  immense.  Un- 
fortunately, the  volume  of  his  profanity  is 
also  immense.  We  have  made  complaints, 
but  the  truth  is  he  can  no  more  change  his 


A    UNION   PRINTER 


foul  speech  and  hectoring  manner  than  the 
leopard  can  change  his  spots .  We  are  men , 
not  slaves,  and  I  know  I  only  voice  the 
general  opinion  of  my  fellow  workmen 
when  I  say  that  this  office  needs  a  new 
head.  As  we  have  previously  brought  this 
matter  to  the  attention  of  the  general  super- 
intendent without  result,  I  move  that  we 
quit  this  office  in  a  body  and  do  not  return 
until  another  foreman  is  appointed  from 
among  the  employees  of  this  room."  The 
resolution  was  carried  unanimously,  and 
changing  quietly  to  our  street  clothes,  we 
departed.  We  all  returned  the  next  morn- 
ing. There  was  a  new  foreman. 

The  change  in  executive  made  no  differ- 
ence to  me.  Handling  my  own  work  v\  ith 
dispatch,  I  had  come  in  for  none  of  the 
deposed  foreman's  profanity,  while  I  flat- 
tered myself  that  I  had  entrenched  myself 
in  a  position  which  I  could  have  as  long 
as  I  liked.  But  with  this  conviction  came 
3o 


A    UNION    PRINTER 


the  query  :  Where  will  it  lead  ?  A  fore- 
manship  would  be  the  next  step,  after  long 
service ;  then  an  office  of  my  own,  which 
would  require  capital.  I  decided  that  if  I 
meant  some  day  to  be  my  own  master  it 
behooved  me  to  acquaint  myself  with  the 
business  end  of  printing,  and  with  this  in 
view  I  one  morning  took  off  my  apron  and 
presented  myself  to  the  superintendent. 
In  a  little  speech,  which  I  had  carefully 
prepared  beforehand,  I  told  him  that  I  had 
had  wide  experience  in  artistic  job  work 
and  knew,  if  he  would  transfer  me  to  his 
business  department  that,  on  account  of  my 
ability  to  sketch  and  plan,  I  could  give 
ideas  to  customers  which  would  increase 
orders.  1  also  added,  when  he  asked  what 
salary  I  wanted,  that  though  I  now  drew 
the  usual  composing-room  wage  of  eighteen 
dollars,  I  was  perfectly  willing  to  work  for 
twelve  dollars  until  I  had  proved  myself 
worth  more.  The  superintendent  listened 
3i 


A    UNION    PRINTER 

to  me  patiently  throughout,  promised  to 
consider  the  matter  —  and  probably  forgot 
all  about  it.  Having  then  little  of  the  per- 
sistency which  I  later  found  it  necessary  to 
develop,  I  made  no  second  call  upon  him, 
hut  continued  in  the  room  above  till  after 
about  a  year's  absence  the  incessant  hot 
weather  joined  forces  with  a  fit  of  home- 
sickness to  drive  me  back  to  my  parents, 
my  friends,  and  the  salt  breezes  I  knew  so 
well  how  to  find  in  a  sailboat  in  Boston 
Harbor. 

The  foreman  yielded  a  very  reluctant 
assent  to  this  vacation  project  of  mine. 
In  fact,  his  last  word  was  a  charge  to 
hurry  back  and  give  the  other  boys  a 
chance.  The  knowledge  and  experience 
I  had  gained  in  the  West  proved  of  such 
value,  however,  that  I  secured  a  Boston 
foremanship  at  a  Chicago  salary.  Thus 
another  year  passed.  More  experience 
came  with  it,  of  course,  but  no  real  prog- 

32 


A  UNION    PRINTER 


ress  towards  my  ideals,  and  I  therefore 
accepted  the  offer  of  a  New  Bedford 
printer  who  wanted  a  foreman.  This 
man  cherished  a  dream  of  starting  a 
daily  newspaper  as  soon  as  conditions 
should  warrant  the  venture,  but  the 
scheme  hung  fire  in  my  time,  and  the 
close  of  a  year  in  his  employ  again 
found  me  ripe  for  change.  I  was  and 
have  ever  been  a  stout  heretic  regard- 
ing the  rolling  stone  adage,  which  my 
old-time  employer  tagged  to  his  sober 
godspeed  for  Chicago.  Moss  is  for 
ruins.  In  change  lie  possibilities. 

It  was  at  this  juncture  that  I  had  my 
first  real  experience  in  soliciting  adver- 
tising. The  week  before  I  left  New 
Bedford  there  appeared  in  one  of  the 
daily  papers  three  columns  of  taking 
description  of  various  local  enterprises. 
It  belonged  in  what  is  known  as  the 
"reading  notice"  category.  In  reality 
33 


A    UNION   PRINTER 

an  advertisement,  it  read  like  news.  I 
thought  the  language  used  was  worthy 
of  a  better  cause,  but  the  scheme  itself 
interested  me,  for,  happening  to  meet 
the  man  who  controlled  it,  he  talked  to 
me  of  his  methods  and  of  the  towns  he 
had  "worked."  His  first  move,  on  arriv- 
ing in  a  promising  field,  was  to  engage 
a  column  qr  two  of  space  in  one  of  the 
leading  dailies  at  advertising  rates.  He 
would  then  call  upon  the  chief  firms, 
advertisers  or  non-advertisers,  and  pre- 
senting his  newly  printed  card  inscribed 
"Special  Editorial  Writer"  to  the  paper 
in  which  for  the  time  being  he  owned 
space,  would  confide  his  intention  to  fill 
two  or  three  columns  of  Saturday's 
issue  with  live  editorial  comment  upon 
the  foremost  business  houses  of  the 
town.  He  would  state  that  a  big  an- 
nouncement was  not  necessary,  the 
smaller  the  paragraph  the  better,  and 
34 


A   UNION   PRINTER 


then,  if  an  order  were  given  him,  gravely 
note  the  personnel  of  the  establishment, 
the  date  of  its  founding,  and  its  speciality. 
By  evening  these  memoranda  would  re- 
appear in  an  item  of  irresistible  praise. 
If  a  merchant  said  he  would  take  twenty 
lines,  the  paragraph  would  fill  forty, 
so  cleverly  dovetailed  that  to  eliminate 
half  would  ruin  all.  Naturally,  the  labor 
of  writing  amounted  to  nothing  after  this 
self-styled  editor  and  his  assistants  had 
covered  a  number  of  cities.  If  an  item 
were  needed  for  a  florist,  say,  they  had 
only  to  turn  to  an  indexed  book  to  find  a 
flowery  paragraph  which  had  already  done 
good  service. 

This  man's  account  of  his  success  led 
me  to  believe  that  advertising,  then  in 
its  infancy,  was  something  it  might  be 
well  to  add  to  my  fund  of  practical  ex- 
perience. In  any  event,  it  promised  a 
living  while  I  looked  about  for  another 
35 


A   UNION    PRINTER 


stepping-stone.  So  reasoning,  I  invaded 
Rhode  Island  and  worked  the  editorial 
advertising  scheme  with  the  "  Provi- 
dence Times."  I  took  two  young  men 
with  me,  advancing  their  traveling  ex- 
penses on  the  understanding  that  they 
should  reimburse  me  out  of  the  profits 
from  their  work.  My  assistants,  how- 
ever, showed  no  aptitude  for  soliciting 
orders.  Having  paid  down  a  deposit  for 
space,  the  work  had  to  be  pushed  to 
completion,  but  as  I  did  practically  all 
of  it  myself,  meanwhile  footing  the  bills 
for  three,  my  personal  gain  was  small. 
Indeed,  I  even  worked  one  night  on 
the  "Times"  as  a  compositor  to  add 
five  dollars  to  my  funds.  The  publisher 
of  the  paper  congratulated  me  on  filling 
so  much  space  at  a  time  when  adver- 
tising was  languid,  and  even  debated 
offering  me  a  position  as  solicitor,  but 
nothing  came  of  it.  Nor  did  anything 
36 


A    UNION    PRINTER 


come  of  my  round  of  the  printing  offices . 
There  was  but  one  offer  made  me  which 
seemed  worth  a  second  thought.  This 
was  from  a  master  printer  who  wished  to 
give  up  active  work.  I  was  to  manage 
his  place  for  a  year,  and  then,  taking  it 
over  myself,  pay  him  out  of  the  profits. 
The  plant  had  been  successful,  but  as  I 
looked  over  the  office,  with  its  dark  cor- 
ners and  low-studded  walls,  I  contrasted 
it  with  the  large  well-lighted  composing 
rooms  to  which  I  had  been  accustomed, 
and  there  and  then  told  myself  it  was  no 
place  to  spend  my  life.  With  this  de- 
cision, more  momentous  than  I  knew,  I 
again  set  my  face  towards  Boston. 


CHAPTER  THREE 
TYPEFOUWDING  BEFORE  THE  TRUST 


CHAPTER  THREE 
TYPEFOUNDING  BEFORE  THE  TRUST 

'OSTON  seemed  to  be  my 
Mecca.  It  did  not  worry 
me  that  I  was  going  back 
without  a  position.  I  had 
my  trade  and  the  Typo- 
graphical Union  here  would  not  require 
me  to  work  at  a  specified  wage.  By  now, 
however,  I  had  the  fixed  idea  that  the 
printing  business  and  I  should  part  com- 
pany, and  I  decided  to  advertise  for  a  place 
in  a  publishing  house  or  some  kindred 
business  in  which  my  previous  experience 
would  tell. 

An  opening  turned  up.  Galling  at  the 
Boston  Type  Foundry,  I  learned  to  my 
delight  that  there  was  a  possibility  of  a  few 

4i 


TYPEFOUNDING  BEFORE  THE  TRUST 

weeks'  service  in  the  specimen  department. 
Delight!  The  word  is  not  half  strong 
enough.  To  give  a  job  compositor  free 
rein  in  a  typefoundry  is  like  turning  a 
youngster  loose  in  a  toy  shop.  Brimful 
of  enthusiasm,  I  presented  myself  to  Mr. 
John  K.  Rogers,  who,  though  he  bore  in 
print  the  unusual  title  "Agent,"  was  the 
actual  head  and  largest  owner  of  this  solid 
house  which  traced  its  beginnings  back  to 
the  administration  of  President  Madison. 
He  was  a  Bostonian  of  the  old  school,  digni- 
fied, courteous,  amiable,  and  so  considerate 
of  others  that  he  hesitated  to  let  me  take 
this  temporary  work  because  he  thought 
it  might  cost  me  a  permanent  position 
elsewhere.  My  eagerness  overcame  his 
scruples,  however,  and  I  was  engaged  at 
the  same,  unescapable  salary  of  eighteen 
dollars  a  week  For  a  term,  as  he  carefully 
explained,  not  exceeding  three  weeks,  the 
hours  being  from  eight  to  five.  This  was 


TYPEFOUNDING  BEFORE  THE  TRUST 

my  first  encounter  with  the  eight-hour 
plan,  and  I  showed  my  surprise. 

' '  I  long  ago  decided,"  he  said  jestingly, 
' '  that  the  proper  division  of  time  is  eight 
hours  for  work,  eight  hours  for  play,  eight 
hours  for  sleep  —  " 

' '  And  eight  dollars  a  day?  "  I  continued, 
completing  the  rhyme. 

"Not  yet,  young  man,"  he  smiled. 
"Not  yet." 

I  think  I  would  have  worked  for  eight 
cents  a  day  rather  than  forego  the  toy  shop. 
The  first  days  were  full  of  surprises. 
Great  novelties  to  me  were  the  types  for 
the  blind,  and  the  Hawaiians,  both  of  which 
were  exclusive  products  of  this  foundry. 
It  was  a  wonder,  too,  where  all  the  type 
went  to,  for  over  a  thousand  pounds  were 
cast  and  finished  every  day.  But  this  was 
before  the  Mergenthaler  typesetting  machine 
revolutionized  methods,  and  while  country 
weeklies  would  use  their  outfits  for  a  dec- 
43 


TYPEFOUNDING  BEFORE  THE  TRUST 

ade  or  more,  the  big  dailies,  issuing  many 
editions  and  printing  from  stereotype  plates 
on  rotary  presses,  required  a  new  ' '  dress  " 
every  second  year.  Neither  the  hydraulic 
hot  press  nor  the  later  cold  press  had  been 
introduced,  and  stereotyping  from  papier- 
mache  matrices  was  generally  in  vogue, 
the  matrix  being  prepared  in  the  old- 
fashioned  way  by  beating  the  paper  into 
the  type  form  with  brushes.  One  famous 
newspaper,  the  "Salem  News,"  was  still 
printed  directly  from  the  type  on  a  curved 
rotary  press,  and  many  was  the  paragraph 
which,  through  hasty  "justification," 
spilled  out  while  the  press  was  running. 
Conditions  being  such,  outfits  of  body  and 
job  letter  were  always  being  shipped  to  the 
papers  of  New  England,  and  their  supply 
was  an  important  factor  in  the  business. 

But  the  most  profitable  branch  of  type- 
founding  then,  as  now,  was  the  manufac- 
ture of  "job  "  faces,  used   for  headings, 
44 


TYPEFOUNDING  BEFORE  THE  TRUST 

newspaper  advertisements,  and,  more 
especially,  circulars,  business  cards,  letter- 
heads, and  the  like.  Fresh  designs  were 
from  time  to  time  brought  out  by  the 
various  typefounders,  and  when  I  entered 
the  Boston  establishment  three  new  series 
of  letters  were  ready  to  be  shown  to  printers . 
It  was  amusing  to  discover  one  of  the  oldest 
tricks  of  trade  in  general  playing  its  part 
in  the  sale  of  these  wares.  Just  as  the 
fruit  vender  always  puts  the  largest  and 
rosiest  apples  at  the  top,  so  the  typefounder 
selects  certain  plump  capitals  to  grace  his 
specimen  sheet  and  keeps  others  out  of 
sight.  There  were  less  than  twenty  letters 
in  our  alphabet.  A  F  L  P  T  W  and  Y 
were  avoided,  but  M,  considered  the  most 
perfect,  was  chosen  as  the  "monitor,"  and 
all  the  other  letters  had  to  line  with  it. 
Two  imaginary  signboards 

JOHN  KOBZNSON  — HIDES 
WILLIAM  LATHAM  —  PAPER 

45 


TYPEFOUNDING  BEFORE  THE  TRUST 

best  illustrate   the   typefounder's   discreet 
arrangement  of  his  apple  cart. 

As  I  studied  the  specimen  sheets  which 
had  hitherto  been  issued  to  display  new 
type  faces,  I  perceived  why  Mr.  Rogers 
felt  sure  that  he  needed  my  services  for 
only  three  weeks.  But  I  forgot  the  time 
limit.  I  saw  an  opportunity  and  I  felt  I 
was  equal  to  it.  Why  not  show  these 
different  faces  in  a  manner  so  attractive 
and  unusual  that  printers  would  not 
glance  and  pass  by,  but  grow  absorbed 
and  decide  that  they  could  not  do  without 
them  ?  On  my  way  home  from  my  second 
day's  work  I  bought  two  bottles  of  colored 
ink — red  and  green — some  paste  and  a 
ruler,  and  with  the  printed  samples  of 
type  before  me,  I  worked  far  into  the 
night,  preparing  a  proposed  specimen 
sheet,  to  be  printed  in  colors.  Previously 
these  had  shown  merely  two  or  three 
sample  lines  and  then  left  it  to  the 
46 


TYPEFOUNDING  BEFORE  THE  TRUST 

printer's  imagination — if  he  had  one  — 
to  discover  how  the  type  could  best  he 
used.  My  sheet  gave  not  only  samples, 
but  adequate  illustrations. 

Taking  my  night's  work  to  the  foundry, 
I  showed  it  to  my  sole  associate  of  the  speci- 
men department,  a  pressman.  He  thought 
it  novel  and  admirable,  but  doubted  if  I 
could  put  the  scheme  through.  More 
valuable  was  his  suggestion  that  I  delay 
broaching  the  subject  till  after  lunch,  a 
piece  of  advice  capable  of  wide  application. 
The  early  afternoon  is  the  time  to  take 
any  new  suggestion  to  any  employer. 
Approaching  Mr.  Rogers,  therefore,  when 
the  important  affairs  of  the  morning  were 
off  his  mind  and  the  small  bottle  of  claret 
he  drank  daily  was  still  a  warm  and  cheer- 
ing memory,  I  found  him  not  only  pleased 
with  the  interest  I  had  taken,  but  even 
willing  as  soon  as  I  made  it  plain  that  it 
was  no  more  difficult,  if  one  knew  how, 
47 


TYPEFOUNDING  BEFORE  THE  TRUST 

to  print  in  colors  than  in  black,  to  give 
me  authority  to  go  ahead.  It  thus  fell 
out  that  the  third  day  of  my  employment 
saw  me  in  charge  of  the  specimen  depart- 
ment, consisting  of  one  man,  one  press, 
and,  most  important,  types  and  materials 
for  my  every  want. 

This  foothold  obtained,  I  worked  with 
an  aim  more  far-reaching  than  the  sale  of 
this  particular  series  of  type.  I  wanted 
this  specimen  sheet  to  coax  such  prompt 
and  liberal  orders  from  the  printers  as 
should  prove  the  value  of  my  idea  and 
remind  my  employer  that  he  had  other 
fine  faces  of  type,  too  gingerly  shown  in 
the  past,  which  I  could  also  display  in  an 
attractive  manner.  On  the  day  the  sheets 
were  mailed  I  took  care  that  the  foreman 
of  every  large  printing  office  in  the  city 
should  personally  receive  a  copy.  The 
result  was  all  I  hoped.  Orders  flowed  in 
at  once,  the  three-week  limit  was  passed 
48  » 


TYPEFOUNDING  BEFORE  THE  TRUST 

in  safety,  and  plans  for  new  sheets  and 
new  specimen  books  multiplied  so  fast 
that  I  saw  myself  a  fixture  for  as  long 
as  I  chose  to  remain.  * 

With  the  assurance  of  permanency 
came  the  same  old  query  :  ' '  Where  will  it 
lead?  "  A  rolling  stone  who  had  profited 
by  nearly  every  roll,  I  could  never  settle 
into  an  easy  corner  and  forget  the  thought 
of  advancement.  It  seemed  to  me  now 
that,  with  my  knowledge,  I  could  help 
both  the  business  and  myself  if  I  were 
to  see  the  printers  personally,  as  a  sales- 
man, but  my  employer  vetoed  the  idea. 
Another  suggestion,  which  I  still  believe 
sound,  also  failed  to  appeal  to  him. 
There  were  in  St.  Louis  two  foundries: 
one  the  St.  Louis  Type  Foundry,  the 
other  the  Central  Type  Foundry,  once 
a  branch  of  our  own  house,  but  now  a 
separate  concern  manufacturing  both  faces 
and  type  bodies  identical  with  those  of  the 

19 


TYPEFOUNDING  BEFORE  THE  TRUST 

parent  establishment.  It  struck  me  that 
if  we  could  arrange  with  the  former  firm 
to  keep  a  consignment  of  our  faces  in 
stock,  we  should  have  a  new  outlet  in 
the  Southwest  for  Boston-made  type.  It 
must  be  remembered  that  these  were  the 
days  when  the  type  bodies  of  the  foundries 
differed  one  from  another  so  widely  that 
it  was  the  part  of  wisdom  for  a  printer 
to  deal  exclusively  with  a  single  house. 
These  various  bodies  of  type,  known 
under  the  ,  arbitrary  nomenclature  of 
"Nonpareil,"  "Long  Primer,"  "Pica," 
and  other  names  as  unmeaning  to  the 
layman,  were  done  away  with  by  mutual 
agreement  even  before  the  Type  Trust 
came  into  being,  so  that  now  the  type 
bodies  of  all  American,  and  even  the 
English  foundries,  are  on  a  basis  of 
"points."  Framed  to  deal  with  the 
haphazard  condition  of  things  before  the 
point  system,  my  plan  had  a  value  which 
5o 


TYPEFOUNDING  BEFORE  THE  TRUST 

would,  I  think,  have  justified  itself  in 
practice,  but  the  conservatism  of  both  the 
Boston  and  St.  Louis  foundries  was  such 
that  nothing  came  of  it  except  the  convic- 
tion on  my  part  that  it  was  time  for  me 
to  try  another  field.  Thinking  that  per- 
haps one  of  the  large  English  firms  might 
be  susceptible  to  American  ideas,  I  wrote  to 
the  two  leading  typefoundries  of  London. 
The  reply  from  the  Gaslon  Type  Foundry 
was  novel  and  gave  a  piece  of  good  advice. 
' '  Whilst  thanking  you  for  the  offer  of 
your  services,"  it  ran,  "we  beg  to  say 
that,  in  our  opinion,  it  is  better  for  a 
young  man  to  remain  in  a  country  where 
labor  is,  and  is  likely  to  be  for  some 
time,  at  a  premium,  than  to  go  to  an  old 
country  where  labor  is,  and  is  likely  to 
be  for  some  time,  at  a  discount." 

The    immediate    cause    of   my    leaving 
the  Boston   Type  Foundry  was  a  patent 
hammer,   one    of   the   inventions    of   my 
5i 


TYPEFOUNDING  BEFORE  THE  TRUST 

father.  This  particular  hammer,  which 
I  now  undertook  to  manufacture,  was 
an  improvement  upon  an  earlier  model 
which  had  been  put  successfully  on  the 
market  some  twelve  years  before.  This 
later  attempt  was  less  fortunate.  Techni- 
cal difficulties  arose,  and  in  less  than  a 
year  the  cost  of  production  had  swallowed 
not  only  the  profits  from  the  sales,  but 
$1200  of  borrowed  money  besides.  Bos- 
ton being  glutted  already,  I  set  out  with  a 
trunk  full  of  hammers  for  Chicago,  but  as 
my  arrival  coincided  with  the  annual  stock 
taking  of  the  hardware  stores,  I  could  as 
easily  have  sold  parasols  to  the  Eskimos . 

Once  more  I  fell  back  on  my  trade. 
Turning  up  next  morning  at  the  printing 
office  where  I  had  been  employed  so  many 
years  before,  I  found  the  foreman  to  be 
a  fellow  workman  of  the  days  of  the  pro- 
fanity strike.  With  a  brief  summary  of 
my  fortunes  in  the  intervening  years,  I 
62 


TYPEFOUNDING  BEFORE  THE  TRUST 

told  him  that  I  wanted,  at  once,  three  or 
four  weeks'  work. 

' '  All  right, "  he  said.  ' '  Will  you  begin 
now  or  to-morrow  morning  ?  " 

I  took  off  my  coat. 


53 


CHAPTER   FOUR 
ON  THE  ROAD  FROM  TEXAS  TO  MAINE 


CHAPTER  FOUR 
ON  THE  ROAD  FROM  TEXAS  TO  MAINE 

I  HIS  return  to  my  old  trade 
I  determined  should  be  but 
a  makeshift.  During  the 
following  week  I  therefore 
wrote  the  chief  typefounders 
of  the  West,  applying  for  a  position  as 
salesman.  I  told  of  my  work  with  the 
Boston  Type  Foundry,  and  enclosed  a  copy 
of  a  letter  given  me  by  Mr.  Rogers  which 
contained  a  sentence  I  felt  sure  would  catch 
the  eye.  This  testimonial,  as  old-time  in 
its  flavor  as  its  author,  ran :  "I  believe 
that  Mr.  Thayer's  ability  and  honorable 
conduct  entitle  him  to  a  more  prominent 
place  in  the  business  world."  From  the 
St.  Louis  Type  Foundry  came  a  favorable 

" 


ON  THE  ROAD  FROM  TEXAS  TO  MAINE 

response.  They  were  in  need  of  a  man  to 
travel  in  Texas,  but  naturally  wished  to  see 
him  in  the  flesh  before  coming  to  terms. 
Disposing  of  my  hammers  to  one  of  the 
big  hardware  stores  —  which  ten  years  later 
still  had  them  on  sale  —  I  said  good-bye  to 
my  trade  for  the  last  time,  and  took  train 
for  St.  Louis. 

Face  to  face,  the  matter  was  soon  ar- 
ranged. I  was  to  cover  Texas  and  Arkan- 
sas, with  expenses  paid,  at  a  salary  larger 
than  I  had  previously  received.  The  pros- 
pect exhilarated  me.  The  eighteen-dollar- 
a-week  mark  was  finally  passed ;  I  could 
' '  roll "  to  my  heart's  content.  As  the  firm 
not  only  manufactured  type,  machinery, 
and  other  printers'  supplies,  but  dealt 
largely  in  paper,  I  spent  a  preliminary 
fortnight  wandering  round  the  great  es- 
tablishment studying  the  latter  business, 
of  which  I  knew  little.  By  the  end  of  a 
week  I  had  memorized  the  various  classifi- 
58 


ON  THE  ROAD  FROM  TEXAS  TO  MAINE 

cations  and  could  with  my  eyes  shut  tell 
the  difference  between  machine  sized  and 
book  paper,  or  No.  i  and  No.  2  news. 
Prices  were  high  in  those  days  and  the 
dailies  paid  six  cents  a  pound  for  paper 
which  now  costs  less  than  two. 

My  maiden  trip  was  to  last  four  months, 
and  the  program  of  the  first  two  weeks  had 
been  mapped  out  in  minute  detail.  Mid- 
summer notwithstanding,  1  was  supposed 
in  this  space  of  time  to  visit  several  places 
in  Arkansas,  and  then,  crossing  the  Texas 
border,  make  eighteen  or  twenty  towns 
and  cities  on  the  exact  days  specified  in  my 
strenuous  itinerary.  I  found  it  novel,  in- 
teresting—  and  hot.  Despite  its  name, 
Hot  Springs,  Arkansas,  proved  cool,  but 
once  in  Texas  I  sighed  for  the  sea  breezes 
and  invigorating  nights  of  the  East.  I 
thought  of  the  East,  too,  as  I  now  ran 
squarely  against  the  Color  Line.  One 
piping  Sunday  in  New  Boston,  when  the 
59 


ON    THE   ROAD   FROM   TEXAS    TO  MAINE 

mercury  had  climbed  to  io5°  in  the  shade 
of  the  hotel  piazza,  where,  book  in  hand, 
I  waited  for  evening,  a  negro  approached, 
and  halting  at  a  respectful  distance,  asked 
for  a  drink  of  water.  ' '  Of  course, "  I  said. 
"  Go  back  to  the  rear  of  the  house."  But 
I  had  scarcely  taken  up  my  book  again 
when  "  Get  out  of  here,  you  black  trash! 
There  ain't  no  water  here  for  such  as  you !  " 
came  explosively  from  the  proprietor's  wife, 
and  the  negro  shot  by.  The  poor  wretch 
was  out  of  sight  before  intercession  was 
possible,  and  I  could  only  wonder  what 
my  abolitionist  parents  in  the  other  Boston 
would  think  of  such  a  refusal  on  such  a 
day. 

It  was  perhaps  unfair  to  judge  Texas  by 
Eastern  standards,  however.  Life  was  still 
rough  and  chaotic  there  in  many  localities. 
Texarkana,  which,  as  its  name  implies, 
owes  allegiance  to  two  commonwealths, 
was  the  scene  of  numerous  shooting  affrays, 
60 


ON   THE   ROAD    FROM   TEXAS    TO  MAINE 

and  one  of  its  notorious  saloons  stood  in 
Arkansas  so  near  the  state  line  that  a  fugi- 
tive had  merely  to  cross  the  street  to  reach 
Texas  and  absolute  immunity  till  requisition 
papers  could  be  obtained.  In  odd  contrast 
was  a  certain  collapsed  "boom"  town, 
which,  once  boasting  twenty  thousand 
souls,  now  reckoned  its  population  by 
hundreds.  The  story  of  its  decline  is  soon 
told :  the  railroad  had  failed  to  come  that 
way.  The  factories  and  fine  residences 
were  tumbling  to  ruin ;  the  pavements 
were  grass-grown  and  treacherous ;  the 
lamp-posts  had  a  Pisa  Tower  incline,  and 
the  inhabitants,  neither  rural  nor  urban, 
were,  for  lack  of  a  police  force,  compelled 
to  take  turns  in  patrolling  the  silent 
streets. 

The  lot  of  a  salesman  in  such  a  country 

had  little  variety  and  less  ease.    I  used  no 

Pullman  cars.     A  few  were  in  use  on  the 

"Gannon-Ball"    trains,    but    they    were 

61 


ON  THE  ROAD  FROM  TEXAS  TO  MAINE 

not  for  me.  When  night  overtook  me 
on  the  road,  I  curled  up  in  the  seats  of 
an  ordinary  day  coach  with  one  valise  for 
a  foot  rest,  the  other  for  a  pillow.  Travel- 
ing thus,  it  will  surprise  no  one  that  my 
expenses  averaged  only  two  dollars  and  a 
half  a  day.  Once  when  I  spent  nearly 
twice  that  amount  I  explained  my  extrava- 
gance in  the  weekly  report  sent  to  head- 
quarters. Under  the  heading  "Remarks" 
I  wrote  :  ' '  The  large  expense  on  this  day 
was  occasioned  by  the  fact  that  I  left  Waco 
at  four  in  the  morning,  saw  our  customers 
in  Temple  and  Bel  ton,  and  arrived  at 
Georgetown  the  next  morning  at  three." 
Valuable  experience  came  with  the  hard- 
ships, however ;  my  persistence  developed, 
my  knowledge  of  human  nature  broadened. 
I  bent  all  my  energy  towards  obtaining 
orders  from  responsible  firms,  and  the 
harder  the  nut  to  crack  the  more  pleasure 
I  took  in  dragging  it  from  its  shell.  In 
62 


ON  THE  ROAD  FROM  TEXAS  TO  MAINE 

Galveston,  to  give  an  illustration,  the 
principal  publishers  greeted  me  with  the 
statement  that  they  made  all  their  pur- 
chases in  New  York  and  that  I  could  sell 
them  nothing.  Why  should  they  buy  of 
me  when  the  freight  rate  direct  to  New 
York  by  steamer  was  less  than  half  that 
to  St.  Louis  by  rail?  Nevertheless,  when 
I  left  town  two  days  later,  one  of  the  best 
orders  of  my  whole  trip  stood  in  their 
name. 

This  showing  so  satisfied  the  firm  that 
they  straightway  packed  me  off  on  another 
campaign.  On  this  second  trip  I  added 
much  to  my  knowledge  of  selling  goods, 
learned  much  also  about  traveling  sales- 
men, and  made  up  my  mind,  if  I  ever  got 
back,  that  Texas  should  see  me  no  more. 
To  bring  the  company  to  agree  with  me 
was  another  thing,  as  I  recognized,  per- 
haps a  week  after  my  next  return  to  St. 
Louis,  when  I  was  told  to  get  my  samples 
63 


ON  THE  ROAD  FROM  TEXAS  TO  MAINE 

ready  because  the  Old  Man — meaning  the 
president,  William  Bright — intended  to 
start  me  off  again  at  once.  Mr.  Bright, 
be  it  said,  was  no  ordinary  man.  An 
indefatigable  worker,  whose  one  defect 
was  a  too  close  attention  to  detail,  he 
brought  to  the  direction  of  this  capacity 
a  mind  fertile  in  ideas.  Beyond  question 
he  invented  the  card  index  system  for 
bookkeepers.  The  ledger  of  our  entire 
business  was  kept  on  cards  arranged 
alphabetically  in  special  tin  boxes  patented 
by  him,  a  rod  and  a  padlock  securing  each 
file  in  the  manner  now  widely  known. 
Fortunately  for  me,  our  personal  relations 
were  of  the  pleasantest.  Often  his  guest 
at  luncheon,  and  a  frequent  visitor  at  his 
country  house,  I  met  an  indulgent,  if 
astonished  hearing,  when  without  mincing 
words  I  announced  that  I  had  decided  to 
travel  in  Texas  no  more.  Asked  for 
reasons,  I  furnished  many,  but  the  heavy 
64 


ON    THE    ROAD    FROM    TEXAS    TO    MAINE 

shot  was  this :  "I  intend  to  marry  some 
day,"  I  said,  "and  I  owe  it  to  my  future 
wife — whom  I  haven't  met — not  to  be- 
come a  confirmed  traveling  man,  unable 
to  do  anything  else,  and  saddled,  perhaps, 
with  bad  habits."  To  the  head  of  a  family 
as  happy  as  it  was  numerous,  this  domestic 
argument  made  its  prompt  appeal,  and  he 
inquired  kindly  what  I  meant  to  do.  I 
modestly  suggested  that  he  permit  me  to 
try  city  trade,  a  field  in  which  we  had 
no  one,  and  the  novelty  of  the  idea  taking 
his  fancy,  a  city  salesman  I  became.  A 
year  of  such  service  followed.  Then, 
choosing  an  opportune  time,  I  asked  him 
if  he  did  not  think  I  was  entitled  to  a 
better  salary.  He  hesitated  for  a  moment 
before  he  answered.  ' '  Don't  be  in  a  hurry, 
boy, "  he  said,  looking  benevolently  over  his 
glasses.  "There's  George,  and  Ernest, 
and  Frank,  who  have  grown  up  with  me. 
If  I  raise  your  salary,  I  feel  that  I  must 
65 


ON  THE  ROAD  FROM  TEXAS  TO  MAINE 

raise  theirs."  I  did  not  see  the  logic  of 
this  reasoning,  and  soon  after  transferred 
my  allegiance  to  a  brass  foundry. 

This  move  proving  as  ill-judged  as  my 
experiment  with  patent  hammers,  I  there- 
upon committed  an  even  greater  error  than 
leaving  the  typefoundry :  I  went  back  to 
it.  The  end  of  another  year  found  me 
still  marking  time. 

It  was  a  home  letter,  telling  how  much 
I  was  needed  by  my  parents  in  their  old 
age,  which  gave  a  final  spur  to  my  unrest, 
and  I  began  to  cast  about  for  ways  and 
means  to  return.  Learning  that  with  the 
death  of  Mr.  Rogers  the  old  Boston  Type 
Foundry  had  passed  into  the  control  of 
its  former  St.  Louis  branch,  I  proposed 
myself  as  a  salesman  for  my  former  house. 
A  new  specimen  book  of  the  combined 
faces  of  both  firms  was  just  then  under 
consideration,  and  my  offer  to  take  this 
over  as  well  clinched  the  matter,  and  I 
66 


ON  THE  ROAD  FROM  TEXAS  TO  MAINE 

was  engaged  forthwith.  My  expenses 
paid,  not  for  the  journey  merely,  but  for 
the  cities  I  visited  en  route  to  see  our 
resident  agents,  I  returned  with  flying 
colors.  That  home-coming  remains  a 
touching  memory  to  me,  for  I  then  carne 
to  appreciate  the  truth,  which  many  learn 
too  late,  that  life's  real  joys  lie  in  doing 
for  others. 

My  work  on  the  specimen  book  forbade 
continuous  travel,  and  as  I  now  mapped 
my  own  route,  followed  no  cast-iron 
itinerary,  and  made  few  trips  of  more 
than  a  week's  length,  I  found  my  jour- 
neys far  pleasanter  than  in  the  South- 
west. Hard  as  they  had  been,  however, 
the  experiences  of  Texas  and  Arkansas 
proved  of  value,  and  thanks  to  their 
schooling,  I  sold  outfits  and  dresses  to 
many  a  crusty  printer  and  publisher  of 
conservative  New  England.  Nowhere, 
East  or  West,  had  I  known  such  an 


ON  THE  ROAD  FROM  TEXAS  TO  MAINE 

obstinate  case  as  I  presently  encountered 
in  that  stronghold  of  odd  characters, 
Vermont.  This  opinionated  citizen  of 
Burlington  bore  a  reputation  so  difficult 
that  salesmen  thought  it  a  waste  of  time 
to  cross  his  threshold.  Transferred  to 
the  Dark  Ages,  he  would  have  built  up 
a  lurid  reputation  as  an  ogre.  Undis- 
mayed by  these  tales,  I  went  early  for 
my  first  call,  and  finding  the  publisher 
out  —  as  I  had  hoped — mounted  to  the 
composing  room,  and  with  the  freemasonry 
of  an  old  printer,  soon  had  the  confidence 
of  the  foreman.  His  equipment  was  as  bad 
as  I  expected,  and  as  he  unburdened  his 
troubles,  I  told  him  that  I  meant  to  see 
his  employer  later,  and  suggested  that  we 
draw  up  a  memorandum  of  the  type  and 
material  really  necessary  to  his  work.  As 
time  sped  on  the  list  grew,  and  finally, 
in  the  hope  that  I  might  secure  an  order 
for  a  small  part  of  the  things  I  had  set 
68 


ON  THE  ROAD  FROM  TEXAS  TO  MAINE 

down,  I  went  below.  His  mail  finished, 
the  Terror  sat  barricaded  by  his  desk,  the 
cares  of  the  universe  wrinkling  his  brow. 
A  curt  nod  acknowledged  —  merely  ac- 
knowledged— my  existence,  and  his  peru- 
sal of  a  newspaper  continued.  Seating 
myself  near,  I  waited  for  him  to  speak. 
After  fifteen  minutes  he  swung  suddenly 
round  in  his  chair. 

"What  can  I  do  for  you?"  he  de- 
manded peremptorily. 

Tone  and  remark  were  alike  familiar. 
I  had  heard  them  too  often  to  tremble. 
Handing  him  my  card,  I  said  that  it 
being  my  duty  to  call  on  the  leading 
publishers  of  Burlington,  I  had  come  to 
his  office  earlier  in  the  day,  and  finding 
him  out,  had  visited  his  composing  room. 
As  a  practical  printer,  I  felt  sure  I  could 
do  something  for  him. 

"What  is  it?"  he  snapped. 

I  produced  my  list. 

69 


ON  THE  .ROAD  FROM  TEXAS  TO  MAINE 

' '  Here  are  the  things  your  foreman 
thinks  he  needs." 

He  merely  glanced  at  it. 

"We  don't  need  this,"  he  blustered, 
but  prodded  the  push  button  for  the 
foreman. 

I  was  such  an  interested  listener  to  the 
dialogue  which  ensued  that  they  withdrew 
to  finish  it  out  of  hearing.  The  list  came 
back  cut  in  half,  but  the  half  was  mine. 
Over  the  hotel  dinner  that  night  I  made  a 
present  of  my  method  to  the  other  salesmen . 

It  was  at  this  period  I  heard  of  the 
wonderful  commissions  given  book  agents, 
and  while  I  suspected  that  selling  books 
must  be  hard  indeed  to  secure  such  terms 
from  the  publishers,  I  decided  to  have  a  try 
at  it  during  a  two  weeks'  vacation  at  Bar 
Harbor.  The  book  was  an  attractively 
illustrated  volume  about  that  resort;  the 
commission,  equally  attractive,  was  forty 
per  cent.  I  felt  sure  that  if  I  could  only 
70 


ON  THE  ROAD  FROM  TEXAS  TO  MAINE 

get  at  the  people  who  lived  in  these  impos- 
ing homes,  I  should  sell  many  copies,  but 
occupied,  as  the  colony  was,  with  social 
affairs,  personal  interviews  proved  impos- 
sible, and  after  two  days  of  rebuffs  I  fell 
back  on  the  vain  expedient  of  sending  the 
book  with  an  inspired  letter.  The  real 
reason  for  my  non-success  was  the  false 
pride  which  is  the  bane  of  the  immature. 
I  did  not  want  the  fascinating  young  ladies 
of  my  hotel  to  think  I  was  a  book  agent! 
One  volume  only  found  a  purchaser.  The 
subscription  blank  I  sent  to  the  publisher 
was  a  copy ;  the  original,  which  I  still 
retain,  bears  the  signature  of  James.  G. 
Blaine. 

But  this  was  merely  by  the  way.  My 
real  work,  in  sufficient  quantity,  lay  else- 
where. In  addition  to  the  special  services 
I  had  contracted  to  perform,  I  handled  a 
large  amount  of  the  firm's  correspondence, 
which,  neglected  by  the  manager,  who  held 
71 


ON  THE  ROAD  FROM  TEXAS  TO  MAINE 

his  place  by  virtue  of  family  ties,  would 
frequently  fall  to  me.  I  did  not  resent 
this.  Active  and  full  of  energy,  I  even 
took  pleasure  in  attacking  a  mass  of  orders, 
telegrams,  and  letters  a  foot  high,  writing 
everything  by  hand.  Many  a  night  I  would 
go  to  the  office,  work  till  two  o'clock,  drop 
in  at  the  old  Boston  Tavern  for  a  few  hours' 
sleep,  and  then  return  early  to  my  desk. 
I  learned  much  of  business  methods  in  this 
way,  but  I  could  not  lift  my  salary  above 
twenty-five  dollars  a  week,  though  I  did 
piece  out  my  income  with  expert  appraisals 
of  publishers'  and  printers'  fire  losses, 
which,  though  infrequent,  brought  me 
from  thirty  to  fifty  dollars  a  day. 

Matters  stood  thus  when,  in  1891,  there 
came  persistent  rumors  that  the  type- 
foundries  of  the  country  proposed  to  enter 
a  trust  backed  by  English  capital.  This 
was  absorbing  news  for  me.  If  the  old 
Boston  Type  Foundry  were  submerged, 
72 


ON  THE  ROAD  FROM  TEXAS  TO  MAINE 

what  sort  of  life  preserver  would  I  get? 
I  therefore  wrote,  without  delay,  to  Mr. 
James  A.  St.  John,  of  St.  Louis,  who  was 
the  virtual  head  of  our  combined  houses, 
asking  the  truth  about  this  report  and  my 
own  chances  for  an  increased  salary.  His 
reply  was  not  reassuring.  Unfamiliar 
with  the  details  or  the  results  of  my  work, 
he  could  promise  no  advancement  till  he 
had,  sometime  in  the  vague  future,  paid  a 
visit  to  Boston  ;  as  for  the  trust,  it  looked 
to  him  as  if  it  would  go  through,  in  which 
case  he  would  no  longer  be  identified  with 
the  business. 

Plainly  it  behooved  me  to  seek  pastures 
new.  Some  months  before  I  had  tried  to 
enter  a  publishing  house.  The  attempt 
had  failed,  but  the  belief  remained  that 
such  a  business  held  great  possibilities  for 
a  man  of  my  practical  knowledge,  and  I 
was  even  now  studying  how  best  to  obtain 
recognition  when  I  saw  an  advertisement 


ON  THE  ROAD  FROM  TEXAS  TO  MAINE 

in  the  "Boston  Herald."  It  was  not  a 
' '  want  ad. , "  so  called.  Displayed  in  large 
type  and  occupying  three  inches  of  promi- 
nent space,  it  spoke  to  me  as  emphatically 
as  if  it  called  me  by  name. 

WANTED 
A  FIRST-GLASS   MAN 

To  take  charge  of  the  advertising 
pages,  make  up  and  direct  artistic 
composition,  etc.  Must  he  famil- 
iar with  the  whole  range  of  adver- 
tising business,  and  something  of 
an  expert  at  devising  artistic  dis- 
play. —  ' '  The  Ladies'  Home  Jour- 
nal," Boston  Office,  Temple  Place. 

I  read  and  reread  that  advertisement  as 
a  street  car  bore  me  to  Cambridge,  and 
with  every  reading  the  conviction  grew 
that  here  at  last  was  the  field  for  which 
all  my  varied  experience  had  been  a  prepa- 
ration. There  would  be  many  answers, 
of  course.  How  could  I  make  my  own 
74 


ON  THE  ROAD  FROM  TEXAS  TO  MAINE 

effective?  Galling  at  the  Boston  office  of 
the  "Journal,"  I  learned  that  only  written 
applications  would  be  received,  and  that 
night  was  devoted  to  the  all-important 
letter.  This  I  next  day  supplemented  by 
three  other  letters  written  for  me  by 
prominent  Bostonians  who  knew  my 
qualifications.  One  was  from  Mr.  Robert 
Luce,  the  author  and  legislator ;  another 
from  Mr.  Potter,  then  publisher  of  "The 
New  England  Magazine,"  who  told  of  his 
satisfaction  with  the  type  I  had  selected 
for  him  without  consultation ;  while  the 
third  was  from  my  boyhood  encourager 
and  lifelong  friend,  Charles  Walker, 
superintendent  of  the  Riverside  Press. 
Taking  care  to  have  my  application  type- 
written, I  thereupon  dispatched  the  whole 
array  to  the  local  office  of  the  publica- 
tion and  awaited  results.  A  few  days  later 
the  editor,  coming  to  Boston,  sent  for 
me.  My  application  had  been  specially 
75 


ON  THE  ROAD  FROM  TEXAS  TO  MAINE 

remarked,  and  after  making  note  thereon 
that  I  would  accept  forty  dollars  a  week, 
he  said  that  it  would  be  considered.  A 
silence  of  some  days  ensued,  which  I  myself 
broke  by  writing  directly  to  the  head  of  the 
company.  This  brought  a  response  from 
the  publisher,  who  asked  me  to  come  and 
see  him  in  Philadelphia.  I  did  not  get 
the  forty  dollars  a  week — then — but  I 
did  get  the  position. 


CHAPTER  FIVE 
A  TYPE  EXPERT  m  PHILADELPHIA 

ARRIVED  in  Philadelphia 
early  one  Monday  morning, 
enthusiastically  happy  over 
the  prospect  which  lay  be- 
fore me.  I  remembered 
the  inspiring  rise  of  that  other  Boston 
printer  who  first  trod  these  streets  in  the 
early  morning,  eating  a  roll  as  he  came. 
With  a  purse  better  lined  than  his,  I 
breakfasted  at  Green's,  but  as  I  struck 
into  Arch  Street  opposite  the  office  of  my 
new  employer,  I  paused  by  the  iron  grat- 
ing of  the  quiet  churchyard  where  Franklin 
lies,  and  with  bared  head  paid  my  silent 
tribute  to  his  memory. 

The  Philadelphia  of  1892  seemed  any- 
79 


A   TYPE   EXPERT   IN   PHILADELPHIA 

thing  but  the  "decaying  place"  he  had 
found  it,  and  ' '  The  Ladies'  Home  Jour- 
nal," though  not  the  great  publication  it 
is  to-day,  had  already  begun  its  extraordi- 
nary march  towards  success.  Established 
in  1 883  by  Mr.  Cyrus  H.  K.  Curtis,  with- 
out capital,  it  was  edited  for  the  first  six 
years  of  its  life  by  his  wife  under  the  name 
of  Mrs.  Louisa  Knapp.  Some  two  years 
before  my  coming,  Mr.  Edward  W.  Bok, 
a  young  man  who  had  served  his  literary 
apprenticeship  with  Charles  Scribner's 
Sons,  had  been  intrusted  with  its  editorial 
direction.  Widely  heralded  as  the  young- 
est and  highest  paid  editor  in  America,  he 
had  no  easy  task  before  him,  but  his  ability 
was  as  remarkable  as  his  opportunity,  and 
the  magazine  sparkled  with  new  life. 
Many  novel  series  of  articles  piqued  the 
public  interest :  ' '  Unknown  Wives  of 
Well-known  Men,"  "  Unknown  Husbands 
of  Well-known  Women,"  and  most  effect- 
So 


A   TYPE   EXPERT  IN  PHILADELPHIA 

ive  of  all,  a  Famous  Daughters  number, 
to  which  the  children  of  Thackeray, 
Dickens,  and  other  literary  celebrities 
contributed. 

Meanwhile  the  "Journal's"  typographi- 
cal appearance  remained  unchanged  until 
the  publisher,  Mr.  Curtis,  one  day  con- 
ceived the  plan,  new  at  that  time,  of  issu- 
ing a  periodical  which  should  be  artistic 
from  cover  to  cover.  This  meant  that  he 
must  not  only  use  better  illustrations,  but 
replace  all  the  black  and  heavy  types,  then 
used  for  advertising,  with  the  lighter  styles 
just  coming  into  vogue.  To  carry  out  this 
revolution  was  my  task,  and  to  me,  know- 
ing little  of  advertising,  it  seemed  to 
present  no  great  difficulty.  But  my 
cheery  optimism  struck  an  immediate 
snag  in  the  simple  fact  that  advertisers 
prepared  and  electrotyped  their  own  an- 
nouncements, and  having  in  many  cases 
used  the  same  advertisement  for  years, 
81 


A   TYPE   EXPERT    IN   PHILADELPHIA 

had  come  to  reverence  its  crude  yet 
familiar  features  as  the  cause  and  mascot 
of  their  prosperity.  Yet  here  we  came 
with  the  impious  proposal  that  if  they 
wished  to  advertise  with  us,  the  sacred 
fetich  must  change  and  purify  its  face! 

We  had  to  make  our  own  precedent 
in  this  matter.  One  newspaper,  the 
"New  York  Herald,"  had  laid  down 
arbitrary  rules  forbidding  display  type 
altogether,  and  formed  its  larger  letters 
by  combinations  of  the  capitals  of  usual 
reading  size ;  but  there  was  no  instance 
of  such  action  on  the  part  of  a  magazine 
publisher,  and  our  clients  rebelled  most 
vigorously  against  the  innovation.  Accus- 
tomed to  deal  with  publishers  who  would 
accept  any  copy,  they  would  frequently 
hold  back  an  advertisement  till  the  last 
moment  in  the  hope  that  it  would  slip 
into  our  pages  unrevised,  but  intuitively 
sure  of  my  employer's  backing,  I  tried 
82 


A   TYPE    EXPERT   IN   PHILADELPHIA 

the  drastic  remedy  of  leaving  these  late- 
comers out.  This,  though  effective  in 
some  cases,  had  its  financial  drawbacks, 
and  I  resorted  to  the  gentle  expedient 
of  a  registered  letter  to  all  advertisers, 
acquainting  them  with  our  rules  of  display. 
To  insure  the  better  printing  of  the  maga- 
zine, I  explained,  all  advertisements  must 
be  reset  in  our  own  type.  We  could  use 
no  electrotypes  sent  us,  but  if  sufficient 
-time  were  given,  we  ourselves  would  be 
glad  to  submit  proofs  for  approval ;  other- 
wise advertising  matter  must  undergo  such 
modifications  as  would  permit  its  insertion 
under  our  rules.  Open  war  followed. 
Taking  the  offensive  themselves,  they 
flatly  refused  to  pay  for  advertisements 
thus  inserted.  But  they  fought  in  an  out- 
of-date  cause.  A  valuable  medium,  steadily 
growing  in  favor,  the  "Journal"  could 
not  be  ignored,  and  as  its  appearance 
improved,  their  desire  to  make  use  of  it 
83 


A    TYPE    EXPERT    IN   PHILADELPHIA 

strengthened.  Inevitably  they  came  to 
our  way  of  thinking,  settled  their  unpaid 
bills,  and  continued  with  us  on  our 
own  terms. 

In  this  general  housecleaning  black  cuts 
naturally  had  to  go.  This  reform  was, 
in  its  way,  more  difficult  than  the  change 
of  type,  because  it  often  necessitated  a  new 
engraving  at  our  own  expense ;  but  in  this 
work,  too,  the  support  of  my  chief  was 
sure.  It  is  often  said  of  Mr.  Curtis  that 
once  he  has  the  right  man  in  the  right 
place  he  gives  him  full  sway.  Certainly 
I  could  not  complain  on  this  score.  I  was 
given  sufficient  rope  to  make  or  hang  my- 
self. Only  once  in  all  my  typographical 
changes  did  I  consult  him.  A  full-page 
advertisement,  the  price  of  which  was 
$3ooo  for  the  single  issue,  had  put  me 
in  a  quandary.  Arriving  just  before  we 
went  to  press,  the  proof  bore  the  warning: 
* '  Will  not  accept  any  change  in  this 
84  ' 


A    TYPE    EXPERT    IN    PHILADELPHIA 

advertisement,"  yet  its  top  line,  "How 
to  Feed  the  Baby,"  was  displayed  in  as 
flagrant  disregard  of  our  new  rules  as  big 
black  type  could  make  it.  To  leave  out  a 
full  page  now  was  a  serious  matter,  for 
beyond  the  money  loss  loomed  the  neces- 
sity for  alteration  of  the  magazine's 
makeup.  Hoping  to  get  permission  to 
reset  the  line  in  lighter  type,  or  to 
"stipple"  it,  I  set  the  long  distance 
telephone  humming,  but  it  was  a  Boston 
client,  and  in  the  Massachusetts  calendar 
that  particular  day  stood  consecrated  to 
Bunker  Hill.  Hanging  up  the  receiver,  I 
decided  to  leave  the  decision  to  head- 
quarters, and  taking  my  way  in  some 
trepidation  to  Mr.  Curtis,  I  showed 
him  the  proof.  He  gave  it  a  brief 
glance. 

"Well,  what  about  it?" 

"It  doesn't  come  within  our  rules  of 
display,"  I  answered. 
85 


A    TYPE    EXPERT   IN   PHILADELPHIA 

To  my  relief  he  did  not  ask  me  to 
define  them. 

"You're  the  doctor,"  he  said  tersely, 
and  handed  the  proof  back. 

I  felt  that  explanations  were  due,  how- 
ever, and  pointed  out  that  the  page  must 
either  go  in  as  it  was,  or  be  left  out  alto- 
gether and  reading  matter  found  to  take 
its  place.  Its  money  value  being  what  it 
was,  I  had  hesitated  to  act  without  con- 
sulting him.  At  this  he  turned  in  his 
chair  and  delivered  some  axiomatic  truths 
about  weak-kneed  publishers  who  went  to 
the  wall  because  they  did  not  adhere  to 
their  rates,  gave  out  inflated  circulation 
statements,  formulated  policies  and  broke 
them,  and  committed  other  sins  common 
at  the  time.  But  of  the  page  in  hand, 
never  a  word! 

Our  mail  a  few  days  afterwards  con- 
tained a  letter  from  the  advertising 
manager  who  had  sent  me  the  omitted 
86 


A    TYPE   EXPERT   IN   PHILADELPHIA 

advertisement.  One  paragraph  ran  :  "As 
we  have  never  been  favored  with  a  copy 
of  your  rules  of  display,  would  it  not  be 
well  to  send  us  either  a  framed  or  an  un- 
framed  impression  of  these  impediments 
to  business,  to  hang  in  our  outer  office 
for  our  own  reference,  and  as  an  awful 
example  to  the  many  representatives  of 
other  publications  who  call  upon  us?" 
We  retained  this  advertiser's  business 
notwithstanding . 

Out  of  this  endeavor  to  make  our  pages 
attractive  throughout  grew  a  policy  which, 
as  far  as  I  personally  was  concerned, 
came  to  wear  the  aspect  of  a  crusade.  I 
had  been  with  the  "  Journal "  but  a  short 
time  when  there  came  a  six-time  order  for 
an  advertisement  of  a  certain  sirup  of 
hypophosphites,  set  in  a  black  type  which 
I  saw  must  be  changed  materially.  To 
its  subject  matter  I  gave  no  thought. 
Endorsed  by  physicians,  it  had  the  ear- 


A   TYPE   EXPERT   IN   PHILADELPHIA 

marks  of  a  first-class  advertisement,  and 
as  such  had  received  Mr.  Curtis'  sanc- 
tion, r  I  knew  little  or  nothing  about 
patent  medicines  myself,  for  in  my  home 
they  were  never  used,  my  father's  only 
cure-alls  being  tincture  of  rhubarb  and 
tincture  of  turpentine ;  but  after  this 
special  remedy  had  paraded  its  claims 
before  my  eyes  for  several  issues,  I  began 
to  investigate  proprietary  medicine  as  a 
whole,  and  to  perceive  something  of  the 
vast  range  of  fraud  and  quackery  which 
lay  behind  its  philanthropic  mask.  Choos- 
ing an  opportune  time,  I  suggested  that 
it  would  be  to  our  benefit  to  decline, 
not  only  this  particular  advertisement, 
but  patent  medicines  of  every  kind.  Mr. 
Curtis'  assent  was  immediate  and  hearty. 
He  said  my  predecessor  had  failed  to  use 
good  judgment  in  this  matter,  that  he 
personally  had  no  desire  to  accept  such 
advertising,  and  that  he  was  glad  I  under- 
88 


A   TYPE   EXPERT   IN   PHILADELPHIA 

stood  it.  So  began,  modestly  enough, 
a  course  of  action  which  was  to  have 
consequences  more  far-reaching  than  I 
dreamed. 

While  these  problems  were,  one  after 
another,  meeting  solution,  there  sim- 
mered in  my  mind  a  thought  which  I 
hoped  time  might  translate  into  some- 
thing more  substantial.  It  took  its  rise 
from  a  letter  which  our  Boston  agent 
addressed  me  perhaps  a  week  after  my 
service  with  the  ' '  Journal  "  began.  There 
was  nothing  remarkable  about  the  contents 
of  this  letter,  but  its  envelope  gave  me  the 
title  ' '  Advertising  Manager."  What  did  it 
mean  ?  Inexperienced  as  I  was  in  the  de- 
tails of  the  business  with  which  I  was 
grappling,  I  had  few  leisure  moments,  but 
whenever  the  chance  came  I  would  fish 
this  envelope  out  of  a  drawer  and  recall 
a  piece  of  advice  given  me  years  before: 
' '  Put  your  ambition  high,  and  work  up  to 

89 


A   TYPE   EXPERT   IN   PHILADELPHIA 

it."  For  some  time,  however,  I  would 
always  slip  the  envelope  back  again  with 
the  reflection  that  I  had  much  to  learn  and 
must  make  good  my  present  footing  before 
I  bothered  my  head  with  titles.  The 
"department"  at  the  outset  consisted  of 
myself  and  a  desk,  but  my  employer, 
hearing  that  I  often  worked  far  into  the 
night,  presently  instructed  me  to  hire  a 
clerk  to  keep  my  records.  This  spare  time 
gained,  I  began  to  study  how  to  better  my- 
self. To  improve  the  typography  of  the 
"Journal,"  to  make  it  up  in  first-class 
shape,  and  to  keep  a  record  of  the  accounts 
were  my  ostensible  duties,  but  in  thinking 
over  my  experience  as  a  salesman,  I  saw 
no  reason  why,  if  I  could  sell  types  and 
printing  presses,  I  could  not  also  dispose 
of  advertising,  and  so  prove  myself  of 
further  value  to  the  house. 

I   saw  my  chance  in  the   "Journal's" 
back    cover.       Full-page     advertisements 
9° 


A   TYPE   EXPERT   IN  PHILADELPHIA 

were  rare,  even  at  this  time  of  low  prices, 
and  the  back-cover  page  usually  held  four 
announcements,  though  in  dull  seasons 
even  eight  would  sometimes  mar  the  space 
which  I  reasoned  could  be  more  artistically 
and  more  profitably  devoted  to  one.  My 
plan  to  utilize  our  cover  in  this  manner 
was  quickened  by  the  fact  that  ' '  The 
Youth's  Companion,"  with  half  a  million 
circulation,  was  beginning  to  insert  full- 
page  advertisements  prepared  and  sold  by 
Mr.  Francis  A.  Wilson,  then  the  most  suc- 
cessful promoter  of  advertising  of  a  truly 
national  scope.  It  was  a  novelty  for  a 
publication  to  prepare  advertisements  for 
a  customer,  but  as  advertising  agents  had 
already  suffered  shocks  at  our  hands,  I 
could  see  no  harm  in  administering  a  few 
more,  and  with  the  firm  resolve  to  sell  full 
pages  to  some  of  our  clientele,  I  began  to 
scan  our  order  book  for  likely  victims. 
At  that  day  advertisers  would  contract 
91 


A    TYPE   EXPERT   IN   PHILADELPHIA 

for  a  definite  period,  with  the  privilege  of 
increased  space  at  the  same  price,  thereby 
gaining  an  advantage  over  those  less  pru- 
dent, if  the  rate  in  the  meantime  advanced. 
Selecting  my  man,  provisioned  in  this  way, 
I  spent  several  days  analyzing  his  adver- 
tising, and  then  formulated  a  full-page 
announcement  which,  I  believe,  struck 
straight  at  the  heart  of  his  special  needs. 
My  complete  plan  included  a  handsome 
wood  engraving  at  the  top  of  the  page,  but 
wood  engravings  meant  money.  At  this 
pass  I  went  to  Mr.  Bok,  who  had  often 
complimented  me  on  my  achievements, 
took  him  frankly  into  my  confidence,  found 
him  a  willing  listener,  and  gained  his  con- 
sent to  incur  the  necessary  expense.  But 
for  that  bit  of  encouragement  from  a  fertile 
mind,  ever  open  to  ideas  from  others,  my 
advertising  career  might  perhaps  have  been 
nipped  in  the  bud.  As  it  was,  it  bore 
fruit  almost  as  soon  as  planted.  Long 
9a 


A   TYPE   EXPERT   IN   PHILADELPHIA 

before  this,  of  course,  I  had  made  my  ad- 
vertiser's acquaintance  by  letter,  and  I  had 
now  only  to  tell  him  that  I  meant  shortly, 
on  a  trip  to  Boston,  to  stop  off,  meet  him 
personally,  and  show  him  an  advertisement 
I  had  prepared.  I  had  chosen  well  my 
customer,  a  future  friend,  and  the  day  I 
sold  him  my  first  full  page  remains  one  of 
the  happiest  memories  of  my  business  life. 
My  arrangement  with  the  "Journal" 
stipulated  for  an  increase  of  salary  at  the 
end  of  the  third  and  sixth  months,  but  in- 
asmuch as  at  the  close  of  the  eighth  month 
I  had  secured  by  personal  solicitation  nearly 
$6000  worth  of  advertising,  I  requested 
that  beginning  with  October  my  pay  be 
raised  from  forty  to  fifty  dollars  a  week. 
In  the  formal  reply  the  treasurer  said,  that 
while  my  services  were  fully  appreciated, 
they  deemed  my  application  untimely  and 
recommended  that  any  further  requests  for 
an  increase  be  deferred  to  the  end  of  the 

93 


A   TYPE   EXPERT   IN   PHILADELPHIA 

year.  But  this  disappointment  was  soon 
forgotten.  For  years,  without  any  re- 
quests whatsoever,  my  remuneration  con- 
tinued to  grow,  and  on  the  announcement 
of  my  forthcoming  marriage  another  un- 
expected increase  in  salary  came  my  way. 
Taught  diplomacy  by  this,  I  went  gingerly 
about  that  other  project  which  had  its  in- 
spiration in  the  envelope  still  reposing  out 
of  sight  in  my  desk  drawer. 

There  was  a  sound  reason  behind  my 
ambition  to  wear  the  title  of  the  office  I 
filled  in  fact.  Personality  nowhere  counts 
more  than  in  the  advertising  business,  and 
as  my  correspondence  grew  I  saw  the 
need  of  emphasizing  this  factor.  Feeling 
sure,  however,  that  any  direct  suggestion 
on  my  part  would  come  amiss,  I  arranged 
a  little  coup  d'etat.  Planning  a  letter- 
head for  the  exclusive  use  of  the  Adver- 
tising Department,  I  had  my  own  name 
placed  in  one  corner  in  very  small  type. 
94 


A   TYPE   EXPERT   IN  PHILADELPHIA 

The  treasurer's  name,  on  the  contrary, 
bulked  quite  as  large  as  a  treasurer's 
should,  and  my  modesty  won  his  grati- 
fied approval.  But  there  remained  Mr. 
Curtis.  Without  his  authority  the  en- 
graved letterhead  bearing  my  name  was 
waste  paper.  Delaying  its  use,  there- 
fore, I  watched  my  opportunity,  and  in 
the  course  of  routine  it  came.  Having  a 
few  days  later  to  confer  with  him  on 
an  important  matter,  I  submitted  a  letter 
on  the  subject  which,  as  regards  con- 
tents, could  not  fail  to  meet  his  approval. 
In  heading  it  was  open  to  doubt,  for  it 
was  written  on  the  new  paper.  The  let- 
ter, true  to  my  expectation,  passed  muster. 
The  heading  escaped  comment,  but  not 
notice.  The  following  day  he,  in  turn, 
showed  me  a  letter,  wherein  to  my  great 
satisfaction  he  referred  to  me  as  "my 
advertising  manager." 

Not   long    afterwards    I    ran    across    a 

95 


A   TYPE   EXPERT  IN   PHILADELPHIA 

sailorman  who,  years  before,  had  cap- 
tained a  relative's  yacht  in  which  I  had 
enjoyed  many  outings  in  Boston  Harbor. 
On  his  asking  what  I  was  doing,  I  rippled 
off:  "I'm  advertising  manager  of  'The 
Ladies'  Home  Journal,'  Philadelphia." 

"I  don't  know  what  that  means,"  he 
said,  his  moon  face  wreathed  in  smiles, 
"but  it  sounds  good." 


CHAPTER  SIX 

ADVERTISING  MANAGER  OF 
' '  THE  LADIES'   HOME  JOURNAL 


CHAPTER   SIX 

ADVERTISING  MANAGER  OP 
"TnE  LADIES'   HOME  JOURNAL" 

HVY  account  of  my  own 
activities  as  advertising 
manager  of  "The  Ladies' 
Home  Journal"  should 
be  prefaced  with  a  word 
about  the  striking  campaign  for  a  larger 
circulation  set  on  foot  by  Mr.  Curtis 
before  I  entered  his  employ.  No  such 
project  had  been  attempted  since  the 
days  of  Robert  Bonner.  The  latter,  so 
the  story  goes,  took  whole  pages  of  space 
in  the  "New  York  Herald,"  and  in  small 
type  duplicated,  a  thousand  times  or  more, 
the  single  line:  "Fanny  Fern  writes  only 
for  the  'New  York  Ledger.'  '  The  cost 

99 


ADVERTISING   MANAGER   OF 

was  of  course  great,  and  his  friends 
thought  him  mad ;  but  when  the  pastor 
of  his  church,  a  man  who  never  read  an 
advertisement,  called  to  show  him  the 
error  of  his  ways,  Mr.  Bonner  had  a  clear 
vision  of  his  ultimate  success.  So  it  was 
with  Cyrus  Curtis.  The  publishing  world 
prophesied  bankruptcy,  but  he  footed  his 
extravagant  bills  with  a  stout  faith.  Aim- 
ing at  a  feminine  clientele,  one  of  his  first 
and  most  telling  moves  was  to  follow 
the  advice  of  his  agents,  N.  W.  Ayer  & 
Son,  and  take  large  space  in  "The  Delin- 
eator," which,  with  a  circulation  of  half 
a  million  monthly  even  then,  was  spread- 
ing broadcast  fashions  to  exploit  its  paper 
patterns.  This  counsel  was  disinterested, 
for  the  usual  commission  given  advertis- 
ing agents  was  denied,  but  it  would  have 
been  cheap  at  any  price.  "The  Delin- 
eator's "  rates  were  low,  and  $6000  spent 
in  announcements,  cleverly  prepared  and 
100 


"THE  LADIES    HOME  JOURNAL 

exceptional  in  size  and  style,  so  beguiled 
the  women  of  the  country  that  Mr.  Curtis, 
as  sure  as  Bonner  of  his  final  victory, 
straightway  decided  to  disburse  $1000  a 
day  for  a  year. 

The  full  benefits,  naturally,  did  not 
accrue  at  once,  but  the  course  of  display 
so  lavishly  begun  was  all  the  time  making 
for  success,  and  work  in  plenty  developed 
for  the  department  of  which  I  now  became 
the  responsible  head.  Continuing  the  plan 
of  preparing  announcements  for  advertisers 
I  had  used  so  successfully  in  selling  my 
first  full  page,  I  designed  others  with  such 
good  results  that  Mr.  Curtis  hit  upon  the 
idea  of  establishing  a  "  Service  Bureau," 
and  engaged  Miss  Jennie  Frazee  solely  to 
write  advertisements.  A  delightful  little 
woman  who  wrote  as  she  talked,  she  had 
won  her  spurs  with  the  drygoods  house  of 
Barr  Brothers,  of  St.  Louis,  where  her 
work  attracted  Mr.  Curtis  by  its  originality. 
101 


ADVERTISING   MANAGER   OF 

Her  advertisements  were  aimed  at  the 
average  customer,  not  the  literary  critic, 
and  if  one  caught  her  up  for  a  lapse  of 
grammar,  she  would  reply,  "Yes,  but 
that 's  the  way  the  majority  of  people  would 
say  it."  Her  coming  necessitated  the  ser- 
vices of  an  artist,  and  we  accordingly  en- 
listed the  aid  of  Miss  Jessie  Willcox  Smith, 
now  well  known  as  an  illustrator.  An- 
nouncements written  by  Miss  Frazee  and 
illustrated  by  Miss  Smith  proved  successful 
from  the  outset,  and  when  advertisers,  who 
usually  took  twenty-five  or  fifty  lines,  saw 
the  work  of  these  clever  collaborators,  they 
would  double,  triple,  and  even  quadruple 
their  space.  Other  artists  were  soon 
needed,  and  our  bureau  was  further 
strengthened  by  the  work  of  Miss  Violet 
Oakley  and  Miss  Elizabeth  Shippen  Green, 
who  also  have  since  achieved  marked  dis- 
tinction in  the  world  of  art. 

At  this  time  I  entered  my  first  and  only 
1 02 


"THE   LADIES     HOME   JOURNAL 

prize  contest.  Allcock's  Porous  Plasters 
were  my  theme,  and  as  they  had  alleviated 
the  penalty  of  too  long  hours  at  my  desk, 
I  wrote  in  full  sympathy  with  the  subject. 
In  one  inspired  evening  I  produced  a  series 
which  brought  me  $i5o,  the  first  prize. 

Advertising  was  then  placed  mainly  by 
advertising  agents,  and  one  of  them,  Mr. 
J.  Walter  Thompson,  of  New  York,  finding 
it  impossible  to  obtain  a  special  rate  in  the 
"Journal,"  not  unusual  for  him  in  other 
publications,  now  proposed,  in  considera- 
tion of  a  five  per  cent  discount,  to  pay  for 
all  advertising  in  advance,  a  check  to 
accompany  every  order.  As  Mr.  Curtis' 
expenditures  were  enormous,  this  sugges- 
tion from  a  man  who  placed  an  immense 
volume  of  advertising  held  advantages  too 
great  to  neglect,  and  with  the  understanding 
that  other  agents  should  receive  the  same 
discount  for  such  payments,  this  radical 
departure  from  custom  was  adopted.  Soon 
io3 


ADVERTISING   MANAGER   OF 

after  my  coming  to  the  Advertising  De- 
partment we  issued  a  new  rate  card,  and 
announcing  this  plan,  added  that  we  should 
deem  advance  payments  proof  of  an  adver- 
tiser's or  agent's  financial  stability.  The 
rigor  of  this  rule  was  later  modified  to 
allow  five  days'  grace  from  the  date  of  the 
bill ;  failure  to  settle  within  that  time,  the 
postmark  of  the  letter  being  admitted  as 
evidence,  serving  to  deprive  the  tardy  of 
any  discount  whatever.  To  the  manufac- 
turers of  dress  goods  and  other  feminine 
wear  the  notion  of  paying  for  advertise- 
ments nearly  a  month  in  advance  seemed 
revolutionary  in  the  extreme.  They  gave 
their  customers  from  three  to  six  months' 
time,  and  dated  their  bills  ahead  at  that! 
But  the  "Journal"  was  a  powerful  me- 
dium, five  per  cent  was  five  per  cent  — 
and  they  fell  in  line. 

This  scheme  of  payment  made  it  neces- 
sary to  forward  copies  of  the  magazine  to 


"THE  LADIES    HOME  JOURNAL 

advertisers  in  advance  of  publication, 
to  the  end  that  they  might  see  their 
announcements  before  ordering  the  next 
insertion.  For  a  number  of  years,  there- 
fore, our  advertising  clients  would  receive 
a  complete  copy  three  weeks  ahead  of 
the  reading  public.  But  one  day  there 
appeared  in  a  Philadelphia  daily,  ac- 
credited to  a  Chicago  newspaper,  a  poem 
by  Eugene  Field,  which  a  too  zealous 
exchange  editor  had  cribbed  from  some 
advertiser's  advance  copy  of  the  forthcom- 
ing "  Journal . ' '  The  press  of  a  push  button 
brought  about  an  immediate  consultation 
with  the  justly  indignant  editor,  and  I 
was  asked,  as  soon  as  might  be,  to  devise 
some  effective  check  upon  thefts  of  this 
nature.  Half  an  hour  later  Mr.  Bok's  face 
lit  with  surprise  and  pleasure  as  I  laid 
before  him  a  "dummy"  which  solved 
the  problem.  It  contained  the  cover,  the 
advertisements,  and  the  titles  of  the 
io5 


ADVERTISING    MANAGER    OF 

articles,  but  of  other  matter  not  a  stickful. 
In  this  form,  the  reading  part  blank,  it 
went  out  thereafter,  and  so  continued  for 
many  years. 

Owing  to  definite  agreements  and  other 
causes,  several  of  the  patent  medicines  to 
which  I  have  already  alluded  for  some 
time  remained  a  thorn  in  my  side,  but 
hoping  to  be  rid  of  them  all  by  and  by,  I 
had  to  content  myself  with  making  full- 
page  glorifications  of  Beecham's  Pills, 
Scott's  Emulsion,  and  Dr.  William's  Pink 
Pills  for  Pale  People  as  inoffensive  in  type 
and  copy  as  I  could.  Guticura  was 
especially  difficult  to  whip  into  present- 
able shape,  but  I  wrestled  with  it  to  such 
good  purpose  that  a  full-page  advertise- 
ment of  the  soap  ran  monthly,  yet  with- 
out affront  to  the  eye,  for  nearly  a  year. 
As  Mr.  Curtis'  publicity  campaign  brought 
business  from  other  sources,  these  prob- 
lems, and  in  fact  the  whole  body  of 
1 06 


"THE  LADIES    HOME  JOURNAL 

objectionable  advertising  from  which  they 
sprang,  gradually  dropped  out  of  sight. 
The  very  first  medium  in  the  publishing 
world  which  an  advertiser  put  upon  his 
list,  we  could  afford  to  pick  and  choose 
and  be  as  fastidious  as  we  pleased. 

Many  fallacies  were  dispelled  here, 
many  theories  tested.  One  interesting 
advertising  fact  we  developed  was  woman's 
undoubted  influence  over  man.  A  manu- 
facturer of  men's  suspenders,  for  example, 
thought  it  a  waste  of  money  to  advertise 
in  a  woman's  magazine.  We  proved  him 
wrong.  Following  up  this  idea,  probably 
the  first  political  announcement  aimed  at 
men  through  women  now  appeared  in  our 
publication.  Paid  for  by  the  National 
Republican  Committee,  it  devoted  a  page 
to  an  entertaining  tale  of  a  woman  who 
went  abroad  thinking  she  could  buy  su- 
perior dress  goods  cheaper  than  at  home. 
Samples  of  fabrics  were  illustrated  and 
107 


ADVERTISING   MANAGER   OF 

prices  compared.  High  protection  was 
then  rampant,  and  the  little  tale  reached 
the  inevitable  climax  that  the  fair  traveler 
returned  to  America  without  buying  any- 
thing. The  advertisement  was  headed 
"Where  I  Purchased  After  All." 

Some  numbers  of  a  magazine,  particu- 
larly those  of  April  and  November,  always 
overflow  with  business,  and  as  advertisers 
are  prone  to  wait  till  the  last  moment,  I 
put  in  practice  another  novel  method. 
Two  days  before  we  closed  one  of  these 
issues  my  assistant  handed  me  a  memoran- 
dum to  the  effect  that  if  we  received  all 
the  copy  for  which  we  had  orders  and 
promises,  every  inch  of  space  would  be 
filled.  Needing  all  the  time  I  could  get  to 
arrange  this  specially  large  amount  of  busi- 
ness, I  accordingly  wrote  this  telegram  : 

' '  Please  do  not  send  any  more  adver- 
tising for  the  April  number,  as  the  space 
is  fully  taken." 

1 08 


"THE  LADIES    HOME  JOURNAL 

Showing  this  to  Mr.  Curtis,  I  told  him 
that  I  meant  to  send  copies  of  it  to  every 
one  of  the  forty  odd  advertising  agents  of 
the  country.  Here,  as  always,  lengthy 
explanations  were  needless.  Handing  the 
telegram  back,  he  said:  "Good  idea. 
Send  them."  Half  an  hour  later  my 
assistant  came  with  a  sad  face  to  tell  me 
that  she  had  made  the  mistake  of  counting 
a  full-page  advertisement  twice.  Telling 
her  to  be  more  careful  in  the  future,  I 
cheered  her  up  with  the  assurance  that 
the  message  would  bring  to  us  more  than 
the  four  columns  we  lacked.  And  so  it 
proved.  Never  does  an  advertiser  long 
to  use  a  publication  so  much  as  when  he 
is  barred  out.  These  strategic  telegrams 
of  mine  roused  much  favorable  comment 
in  the  advertising  world,  but  when  similar 
messages  left  our  office  in  the  future,  the 
space  was  actually  taken. 

While  things  fared  so  well  in  my  depart- 
109 


ADVERTISING   MANAGER   OF 

rnent,  the  Western  office,  under  the  man- 
agement of  Mr.  Thomas  Balmer,  was  such 
an  important  factor  that  the  advertising 
from  the  West  often  more  than  equaled 
the  amount  obtained  in  the  East.  To  Mr. 
Balmer,  more  than  any  one  man,  is  due 
the  credit  of  lifting  the  advertising  busi- 
ness to  the  high  plane  it  now  occupies. 
Bringing  to  his  work  a  long  experience 
gained  in  other  walks  of  life,  he  sug- 
gested ideas  which  in  some  cases  seemed 
Napoleonic,  but  which  we  know  as  standard 
policies  to-day .  Realizing  that  a  truly 
scientific  advertising  must  base  itself  on 
psychology,  he  set  to  work  to  analyze  busi- 
ness failures,  and  conclusively  proved, 
among  other  things,  that  the  advertiser  who 
buys  small  space  pays  dearest.  Again, 
scrupulous  of  the  ethics  of  his  profession, 
he  originated  the  contract  plan  between 
agent  and  publisher  which  makes  it  obliga- 
tory for  the  former  to  retain  the  publisher's 
no 


"THE   LADIES     HOME   JOURNAL 

full  commission  and  give  rebates  to  no  one. 
These  instances  indicate  the  remarkable 
caliber  of  the  man  who,  becoming  the  first 
Western  representative  of  an  Eastern  publi- 
cation, ever  carried  out  the  policies  of  his 
home  office  with  unflinching  loyalty  and 
a  firm  hand. 

During  my  connection  with  ' '  The 
Ladies'  Home  Journal"  I  saw  many  busi- 
ness managers  come  and  go,  and  as  I 
wished  to  broaden  my  experience  of  pub- 
lishing, I  took  it  into  my  head  that,  when 
the  next  vacancy  occurred,  I  would  make 
a  bid  for  it.  Presently  the  chance  came, 
and  I  told  Mr.  Curtis  that  I  believed  I  could 
fill  the  place  acceptably.  He  pointed  out, 
as  I  felt  sure  he  would,  that  neither  in 
salary  nor  rank  was  the  position  as  impor- 
tant as  my  own.  Whereupon  I  brought 
to  light  my  carefully  devised  plan  of  driving 
a  double  team,  or,  in  other  words,  acting 
as  business  manager  and  advertising  mana- 
iii 


ger  at  the  same  time,  with  an  assistant  in 
each  department.  His  rejoinder  to  this 
ended  the  interview .  "  It  is  not  my  policy, " 
he  said,  "to  put  two  departments  in  the 
hands  of  one  man." 

I  should  not  have  been  myself,  however, 
had  I  not  made  that  attempt.  The  aspira- 
tion to  get  on  which  spurred  me  from  office 
to  office  as  a  union  printer  still  persisted, 
and  undiscouraged  by  this  rebuff,  only 
bided  its  time.  Casting  my  eye  over  the 
magazine  field,  I  saw  possibilities  in  the 
' '  Atlantic  Monthly . ' '  Printed  at  Riverside 
Press,  it  was  the  first  magazine  of  which 
I  had  any  knowledge.  A  great  publishing 
house  was  behind  it,  with  a  list  of  books 
by  famous  old-time  authors  as  well  as 
newer  favorites.  As  a  business  proposition 
for  the  book  end,  the  idea  was  sound  if, 
as  I  planned,  the  magazine  could  be  in- 
creased from  its  small  circulation  of  less 
than  twenty-five  thousand  copies  up  into 

112 


"THE  LADIES     HOME  JOURNAL 

the  hundred  thousands.  To  do  this  the 
"Atlantic"  would  have  to  be  materially 
changed  and  illustrated.  On  one  of  my 
trips  to  Cambridge  I  pointed  out  to  my  old 
friend,  Charles  Walker,  this  striking  op- 
portunity, and  he,  speaking  of  it  to  the 
publishers,  brought  about  an  early  inter- 
view. The  delightful  gentleman  who  has 
been  for  so  many  years  the  head  of  this  old 
house  was  interested,  but  to  change  the 
magazine  in  any  way  —  never!  It  was 
Boston. 

As  was  generally  the  case  wherever  my 
lines  were  cast,  my  next  difference  of  opin- 
ion with  my  employer  hinged  upon  the 
question  of  salary.  Indeed,  with  the  ex- 
ception of  Mr.  Curtis,  I  had  never  worked 
for  anybody  who  raised  my  pay  as  often 
as  I  thought  I  deserved.  I  was  not  always 
right  in  so  thinking,  for  when  I  became  an 
employer  myself,  I  learned  that  rapid  pro- 
motion may  handicap  a  young  man's  use- 
n3 


ADVERTISING  MANAGER   OF 

fulness.  Be  this  as  it  may,  I  had  these 
notions  about  my  services,  which,  until  I 
came  to  Philadelphia,  no  one  seemed  to 
appreciate  at  their  full  value.  Here,  for 
five  years,  increases  came  regularly.  Then 
I  was  forgotten,  or  at  least  it  seemed  so, 
for  one  day  the  looked-for  raise  failed  to 
appear.  Selling  personally  large  quanti- 
ties of  advertising  space  in  addition  to 
many  full  pages,  I  believed  my  work 
should  be  better  paid  and  resolved  that, 
if  I  could  not  persuade  my  employers  to 
agree  with  me,  I  would  again  get  out  into 
the  world  of  opportunities.  Nothing  de- 
veloping at  the  next  meeting  of  the  board 
of  directors,  I  frankly  petitioned  Mr. 
Curtis  for  $5ooo  a  year.  My  reasons 
were  two  :  I  felt  I  was  worth  it,  and  I 
needed  the  money.  To  the  latter  argu- 
ment he  dryly  replied  that  whether  I 
needed  the  money  or  not  was  a  personal 
matter  in  which  he  had  no  interest.  As 


"THE  LADIES    HOME  JOURNAL 

for  the  salary,  he  stated  that  so  many 
heads  of  departments  had  requested  more 
pay  for  their  subordinates  that  the  total 
amount  involved  had  decided  him  to  de- 
lay all  increases  for  another  year. 

My  disappointment  must  have  been  evi- 
dent, for  a  few  days  later  I  was  told  that  I 
might  go  abroad  at  the  company's  expense 
—  a  suggestion  I  had  often  advanced  —  and 
that  in  the  fall  the  salary  I  asked  would  be 
mine.  Supplied  with  ample  funds  and  fol- 
lowed by  a  bon  voyage  telegram  from  the 
editor,  I  set  out  on  my  first  transatlantic 
trip.  The  outing  broadened  my  point  of 
view  and  put  me  in  the  way  of  meeting 
many  advertisers  and  advertising  men 
whose  acquaintance  later  proved  valu- 
able assets.  I  now  first  came  to  know 
the  hospitable  courtesies  of  Mr.  Thomas 
J.  Barratt,  managing  director  of  Pears' 
Soap,  whose  remarkable  offices  and  beau- 
tiful home  with  its  art  collection,  which 
n5 


ADVERTISING   MANAGER   OF 

included  Millais  "Bubbles"  and  Land- 
seer's  "Monarch  of  the  Glen,"  I  found 
full  of  interest. 

The  fall  saw  me  back  at  work  arid 
my  salary  at  the  $5ooo  mark  promised. 
Those  were  piping  times  everywhere,  and 
the  "Journal"  rode  on  the  crest  of  the 
wave.  Totaling  a  quarter  of  a  million 
dollars  at  my  coming,  the  business  of 
my  department  now  had  a  yearly  volume 
of  twice  that  amount.  It  was  the  heyday 
of  advertising,  and  the  salaries  of  adver- 
tising men  were  beginning  to  mount  with 
the  profits.  Repeatedly,  I  could  have 
gone  to  newspapers  at  a  higher  salary. 

About  this  time  ' '  The  Saturday  Evening 
Post,"  a  story  paper,  was  bought  by  Mr. 
Curtis.  Its  assets  consisted  of  its  name 
and  the  fact  that  it  had  been  established 
in  1728  by  Benjamin  Franklin.  To  me 
this  purchase  naturally  suggested  an  en- 
larged department,  more  work,  and 
116 


"THE  LADIES    HOME  JOURNAL 

probably  an  increased  salary,  but  this 
vision  of  larger  usefulness  seemed  remote. 
"The  Post"  could  have  no  future  without 
the  miracle  of  a  rebirth.  This  was,  of 
course,  before  Mr.  Curtis  discovered  in 
Mr.  George  Horace  Lorimer  a  co-worker 
whose  editorial  ability  well  matched  his 
own  signal  talent  for  exploitation. 

By  normal  standards  I  should  have  been 
content.  But  I  was  not. 

Systematized  to  the  last  detail,  the 
Chicago  and  the  New  York  offices  prac- 
tically independent,  my  department  ran 
with  the  precision  of  a  faultless  machine. 
I  had  leisure  now  for  reflection,  and 
reflection  told  me  an  unwelcome  truth. 
Lodged  permanently  among  the  odd 
scraps  of  philosophy  by  which  I  steered 
my  course  was  a  watchword  given  me 
by  a  well-disposed  friend  early  in  my 
business  life.  "Don't  get  into  a  rut, 
my  boy,"  he  warned.  "If  you  find 
117 


ADVERTISING   MANAGER   OF 

you  are  in  one,  pull  yourself  out  quick." 
Was  I  not  in  a  rut  now?  I  had 
been  with  the  "Journal"  six  years — a 
long  time  for  me  to  work  for  one  em- 
ployer. If  I  were  not  to  become,  as  I 
hoped,  a  vital  part  of  this  concern,  would 
not  continued  service  unfit  me  to  do 
battle  elsewhere?  In  the  fiercely  com- 
petitive business  world  I  had  watched 
new  men  come  and  old  men  go.  A 
mere  employee,  I  too,  some  day,  my 
maximum  usefulness  past,  might  tread 
their  melancholy  way. 

Speedily,  and  yet  with  deliberation,  I 
set  down  my  thoughts  in  a  letter  to  the 
publisher,  which  I  sent  to  a  Boston  friend 
for  revision.  This  friend,  an  advertising 
agent  well  acquainted  with  Mr.  Curtis,  had 
acquired  the  art  of  "smooth"  writing. 
My  own  style  is  to  call  a  spade  a  spade,  and 
not ' '  an  agricultural  implement  for  remov- 
ing the  crust  of  the  earth,"  but  I  realized 
118 


"THE   LADIES     HOME   JOURNAL 

the  importance  of  this  step  and  wanted  the 
best  advice  possible.  I  received  the  advice, 
and  my  chief  the  letter.  I  said  that  I  was 
satisfied  with  my  position  and  my  salary, 
but  in  contemplating  the  future,  as  a  young 
man  should,  it  seemed  to  me  that  "I 
should  be  placed  where  others  of  my  class 
are :  with  such  a  stock  interest,  in  addition 
to  a  fair  living  salary,  that  I  could  feel  my- 
self a  part  of  the  integral  whole,  all  work- 
ing for  a  common  end . "  This ,  I  suggested , 
could  be  arranged  by  giving  me  an  option 
on  $20,000  worth  of  the  company's  stock. 
Mr.  Curtis'  reply  was  not  "smooth." 
' '  There  is  no  such  quantity  of  stock  for 
sale,"  he  stated,  and  as  the  flash  in  his  dark 
eyes  met  mine,  I  read  that  my  future  was 
to  him  another  "personal "  matter  in  which 
he  had  no  concern.  I  was  as  a  spoke  in  a 
wheel,  a  part  of  his  great  machine,  and  I 
had  failed  to  interest  him  beyond  the  day's 
work.  I  did  not  take  umbrage  at  this, 
"9 


ADVERTISING   MANAGER  OF 

though  to  know  it  was  worth  while.  Men, 
who  are  not  slaves,  make  of  their  lives 
what  they  will.  Before  this  brief  interview 
ended,  there  flashed  across  my  mental  vision 
other  positions  which  I  had  declined  ;  other 
possibilities  in  the  world  yet  untried.  To 
my  optimistic  nature  change  still  meant 
progress.  To  take  one  more  roll,  before 
the  moss  gathered,  was  my  determina- 
tion. And  I  saw  another  milestone  near; 
another  break  in  the  life-line  of  my  busi- 
ness career. 

Within  a  month  I  resigned,  having  mean- 
while secured  a  position  as  business  manager 
for  Frank  A.  Munsey.  I  asked  no  advice 
this  time.  Men  of  affairs,  seeking  counsel 
of  their  fellows,  desire  merely  to  have  their 
plans  approved.  Munsey  was  considered 
impossible.  Other  men  had  gone  to  him 
and  stayed  but  a  few  weeks.  All  advice 
would  be  against  the  experiment.  There- 
fore I  sought  none. 

120 


THE   LADIES     HOME  JOURNAL 

Just  before  I  left  for  New  York  my 
friends  —  rich ,  well-to-do ,  and  poor — gave 
me  a  costly  farewell  dinner  at  the  Bellevue 
Hotel.  I  had  never  figured  so  publicly  as 
guest  of  honor,  and  touched  by  this  tribute, 
I  promised  myself  that  I  would  some  day 
show  my  appreciation.  As  the  feast  neared 
its  close  the  chairman  received  and  read 
this  telegram: 

' '  To  be  dined  and  wined  upon  entering 
a  town  is  one  thing.  To  be  dined  and 
wined  by  friends  and  business  people  after 
six  years  of  citizenship  is  quite  another 
thing.  I  wish  I  were  with  you  to-night  to 
join  in  personal  felicitations  to  Mr.  Thayer. 
—  FRANK  A.  MUNSEY.' 


121 


CHAPTER  SEVEN 
A  MONTH  AND  A  DAY  WITH  MUNSET 


CHAPTER  SEVEN 
A  MONTH  AND  A  DAY  WITH  MUNSKT 

[RANK  A.  MUNSEY  is  a 
brilliant  man  —  in  more 
ways  than  one.  A  real 
genius  seldom  makes  a 
success  of  a  business  un- 
dertaking, but  a  man  who  is  a  genius 
in  spots  can  be  successful  in  business. 
Munsey  is  a  genius  in  spots.  During  the 
financial  panic  of  1907  his  purchases  of 
common  steel  were  so  large  that  he  made 
millions  of  dollars  on  the  rise  in  values, 
and  those  who  followed  his  advice  at  that 
time  likewise  profited,  as  I  have  good 
reason  to  know.  His  career  as  a  publisher 
is  a  most  interesting  tale.  Braving  New 
York  with  ' '  a  gripful  of  manuscripts  and 

125 


A  MONTH  AND  A  DAY  WITH  MUNSEY 

about  forty  dollars  in  cash" — to  use  his 
own  words  —  he  for  years  faced  what 
seemed  almost  sure  failure.  Seeing  plan 
after  plan  crumble,  doing  two  men's  work 
by  day,  writing  his  own  serials  at  night, 
meeting  changing  business  conditions  with 
fresh  ideas,  and  finally,  $100,000  in  debt, 
fighting  a  single-handed  battle  with  a  great 
distributing  monopoly  which  tried  to  shut 
him  from  his  public  —  such  was  the  rise 
of  the  man  who  after  a  quarter  of  a 
century  found  himself  owner  of  several 
daily  newspapers  and  many  monthly 
magazines. 

It  has  been  said  by  a  rival  that  ' '  Munsey 
is  not  a  magazine  publisher,  but  a  magazine 
manufacturer."  As  it  is  a  known  fact 
that  the  Frank  A.  Munsey  Company's 
annual  profits  exceed  $1,000,000,  it  is 
clear  that,  as  far  as  earnings  go,  he  is  the 
most  successful  "manufacturer"  in  the 
magazine  world.  Some  men  issue  maga- 
126 


A  MONTH  AND   A   DAY   WITH   MUNSEY 

zines  at  a  loss;  Munsey  makes  his  to  sell. 
It  was  not  a  manufacturing  publisher  who 
drew  the  above  distinction. 

My  first  day  with  Mr.  Munsey  stands 
out  in  my  mind  as  distinctly  as  the  one, 
when  a  boy,  I  was  promoted  to  long  pants. 
I  was  told  that  first  morning  to  attempt  no 
actual  work,  but  to  "breathe  in  the  at- 
mosphere of  the  place."  This  was  a  new 
line  of  work  for  me,  but  I  did  my  best. 
My  arrangement  was  for  a  year  at  a  salary 
of  $7600 ;  our  actual  relationship  lasted 
for  a  month  and  a  day.  The  story  is  best 
told  in  two  letters  and  a  prophecy. 

As  a  New  Year's  present,  the  following 
letter  was  handed  to  me  at  the  close  of 
day,  December  3i,  1897  : 

"NEW  YORK,  December  3i,  1897. 

"MY    DEAR    MR.    THAYER, — This    week 

which  ends  to-night  completes  your  fourth 

week  with  us.     I  have  been  studying  you 

127 


A   MONTH   AND    A   DAY    WITH   MUNSEY 

I  suppose  about  as  closely  as  I  should 
expect  you  to  study  a  new  man  in  your 
department.  If  I  were  in  your  place  and 
you  in  mine,  I  should  be  glad  to  have  a 
frank  statement  from  you  of  the  impres- 
sions you  had  formed  of  me.  Feeling 
this  way  myself,  I  naturally  assume  that 
you  would  like  to  know  what  impressions 
I  have  formed  of  you,  and  for  this  reason 
I  write  you  this  letter. 

"  In  a  word,  you  are  not  the  strong  man 
I  expected  you  to  be.  You  have  shown 
nothing  of  the  versatility  I  expected  to 
find  in  you,  nothing  of  the  alertness  of 
temperament  I  expected  to  find  in  you. 
You  have  brought  no  new  ideas  to  the 
house,  no  new  ideas  to  the  advertising 
department.  You  have  brought  no  busi- 
ness, either  directly  or  indirectly,  to  the 
advertising  department  in  the  four  weeks 
you  have  been  here  —  not  so  much  as  a 
line.  You  have  shown  no  extraordinary 
128 


A  MONTH  AND  A  DAY  WITH  MUNSEY 

genius  in  your  correspondence ;  you  have 
written  no  advertising,  have  got  up  no 
advertising.  And  in  your  handling  of  the 
force  you  have  not  evidenced  any  remark- 
able executive  ability  or  even  first  rate 
diplomacy. 

"When  you  complained  yesterday  that 
I  did  not  show  sufficient  confidence  in  you, 
I  replied  that  you  had  done  nothing  yet 
to  command  my  confidence.  You  an- 
swered that  it  was  three  months  before 
you  did  anything  at  'The  Ladies'  Home 
Journal'  [sic\.  Be  this  as  it  may,  I  sub- 
mit to  you  that  there  is  a  very  wide  dif- 
ference between  the  young  man  direct 
from  a  typefoundry,  with  absolutely  no 
knowledge  of  the  advertising  business,  and 
no  pretence  of  knowledge  of  the  adver- 
tising business,  and  on  a  nominal  salary 
—  between  such  a  man  and  a  giant  in 
the  business,  a  full-grown  man,  a  fully 
equipped  man,  a  great  big  salaried  man. 
129 


A  MONTH   AND  A   DAY  WITH   MUNSEY 

From  the  one  I  should  not  expect  much, 
from  the  other  I  have  every  right  to 
expect  a  great  deal. 

' '  Such  answers  as  these  on  this  point 
show  a  lack  on  your  part  of  a  closely 
reasoning  mind,  and  no  man  can  appeal 
to  me,  can  command  my  confidence  in  a 
managerial  position  unless  he  shows  well- 
thought-out  reasons  for  every  act,  every 
move  he  makes,  every  statement  he 
makes.  This  is  only  one  of  the  instances 
that  lead  me  to  believe  that  you  are  not 
a  close  reasoner.  Moreover,  your  ten- 
dency towards  red  tape,  your  tendency 
to  surround  yourself  with  a  halo  of  ex- 
aggerated importance,  your  petty  jealousy 
when  a  man  from  the  advertising  depart- 
ment  comes  to  me,  or  I  send  to  him  to 
come  to  me  —  all  this  is  extremely  dis- 
tasteful to  me,  and  will  not  go  for  a 
minute  in  this  house. 

"In  the  four  weeks  you  have  been 
i3o 


A  MONTH  AND  A  DAY  WITH  MUNSEY 

here  you  have  hardly  been  out  of  your 
office.  I  expected,  as  a  matter  of  course, 
that  you  would  lose  little  time  in  putting 
yourself  in  touch  with  the  advertising 
agents  and  with  the  army  of  advertising 
solicitors  employed  by  these  agents,  to 
say  nothing  of  bringing  your  personality 
to  bear  upon  the  leading  advertisers  of 
New  York  and  New  England.  I  made  it 
quite  plain  to  you  a  few  days  ago  that  the 
course  you  were  pursuing  did  not  appeal 
to  me  as  the  wisest  one,  and  I  think  you 
announced  to  Mr.  Ridgway  that  hereafter 
you  would  be  in  your  office  only  a  small 
portion  of  the  time,  or  something  to  this 
effect.  But  in  discussing  the  matter  yes- 
terday or  the  day  before  you  told  me 
that  there  were  so  many  of  our  solicitors 
in  town  that  it  was  not  wise  for  you  to 
go  down  and  recover  the  ground.  In  a 
word,  if  it  is  not  wise  for  you  to  do  this, 
and  if  it  is  not  wise  for  you  to  establish  a 
181 


A   MONTH   AND   A  DAY   WITH   MUNSEY 

personality  with  all  these  men  as  the  rep- 
resentative head  of  the  department,  then  it 
is  not  wise  for  me  to  keep  you  as  the 
representative  head  of  the  department. 

"Now  I  will  tell  you,  my  dear  Mr. 
Thayer,  just  where  the  great  big  mistake 
has  been,  and  there  is  no  question  in  my 
mind  but  that  you  have  made  a  mistake 
and  that  I  have  made  a  mistake.  You 
have  overestimated  your  capacity  to  do 
for  us  and  underestimated  our  capacity 
to  do  for  ourselves.  This  is  the  mistake 
you  have  made.  The  mistake  I  made 
was  engaging  you  on  the  great  big  repu- 
tation you  had,  the  glowing  statements 
of  your  friends,  and  the  showing  you 
made  for  yourself  in  the  several  conver- 
sations you  had  with  me. 

"Here  is  what  Mr.  Barber  said  to  me 

in  Boston  one  day  last  fall.      '  There  is  a 

possibility,  Mr.  Munsey,  that  you  can  get 

'a  great  genius  in  the  advertising  business.' 

182 


A  MONTH  AND  A  DAY  WITH  MUNSEY 

'Yes,'  I  said,  'who  is  he?'  'Who  is  he?' 
Mr.  Barber  replied  with  a  smile.  '  Why, 
there  is  but  one  man  in  the  whole  coun- 
try.' After  a  good  deal  of  fencing,  and 
the  promise  of  strict  secrecy  on  my  part, 
I  learned  that  that  one  man  was  Mr. 
Thayer,  of  'The  Ladies'  Home  Jour- 
nal,' and  Mr.  Barber  assured  me  that  it 
was  Mr.  Thayer  who  had  brought  the 
advertising  department  of  'The  Ladies' 
Home  Journal'  up  to  its  matchless  stand- 
ard—  stood  for  the  department,  made 
the  department,  was  the  department. 
And  Mr.  Barber  added  that,  with  'The 
Puritan'  on  my  hands  in  addition  to  my 
other  publications,  if  I  could  have  the 
assistance  of  Mr.  Thayer,  could  have  Mr. 
Thayer  at  the  head  of  my  advertising 
department,  I  need  have  no  further 
thought  of  it,  and  that  Mr.  Thayer  would 
make  such  a  showing  as  we  never  could 
hope  to  have  without  him. 
i33 


A  MONTH  AND  A  DAY  WITH  MUNSEY 

"Well,  all  this  impressed  me  tremen- 
dously ;  it  would  have  impressed  most  men 
tremendously.  Then,  too,  there  was  Mr. 
Clark's  statement  to  the  effect  that  you 
were  a  wonderful  business  man,  a  man 
of  rare  energy,  an  indefatigable  worker, 
etc.,  etc.,  etc. 

"These  are  the  causes  that  led  to  my 
mistake,  and  I  think  I  stated  accurately  the 
causes  that  led  to  the  mistake  on  your  part. 
You  may  not  be  ready  to  grant  even  yet 
that  your  coming  here  was  a  mistake,  but 
from  my  point  of  view  there  is  absolutely 
no  doubt  about  its  being  a  mistake  at  the 
salary  at  which  you  came.  No  man,  I  do 
not  care  who  he  is  or  what  his  line  of  work 
is,  can  afford  for  a  minute  to  allow  himself 
to  accept  a  salary  bigger  than  he  is  himself. 
The  minute  he  does  this  that  minute  he  is 
at  a  serious  disadvantage. 

"It  is  possible  you  might  be  worth  this 
much,  or  at  all  events  a  good  handsome 


A  MONTH  AND  A   DAY   WITH   MUNSEY 

salary,  to  a  house  that  knows  nothing  of 
the  advertising  business  itself,  to  a  house 
having  a  moderate  knowledge  of  the  pub- 
lishing business,  but  here  it  is  different. 
Your  mind  has  not  covered  a  wider  range 
of  thought  than  the  combined  minds  operat- 
ing this  business,  and  your  experience  has 
been  less  rather  than  greater  than  that  of 
the  combined  forces  operating  this  business. 
This  being  the  fact,  you  have  brought 
nothing  to  the  business,  no  knowledge  we 
did  not  already  have,  and  as  to  your  indi- 
vidual capacity,  candor  compels  me  to  say 
that  we  have  with  us  half  a  dozen  men 
whose  average  salary  is  one-third  of  yours, 
all  of  whom  are  men  who  can  make  them- 
selves of  greater  value  to  me  than  I  believe 
it  possible  for  you  to  be. 

"This  is   a  straightforward,   unbiased, 

and  as  kindly  a  statement  as  I  can  make  of 

my  impression  of  you  at  the  end  of  the  four 

weeks  with  us.      I  regret  exceedingly  that 

i35 


A  MONTH  AND  A  DAY  WITH  MUNSEY 

I  cannot  make  you  a  report  that  would  be 
full  of  glowing  praise,  but  it  cannot  be 
done. 

"With  this  statement  before  you  you 
will  not  be  misled.  You  can  bring  your 
reasoning  powers  to  bear  upon  the  problem , 
and  together  with  me,  help  to  figure  out 
the  wisest  way  we  can  both  get  out  of  the 
mistake  we  have  made.  I  regret  the  mis- 
take vastly  more  on  your  account  than  I  do 
on  my  own,  and  it  is  my  purpose  to  treat 
you  in  the  most  generous  possible  way  — 
to  do  whatever  I  can  for  you  to  help  you 
in  making  other  connections  or  to  help  you 
in  starting  a  business  of  your  own  —  some- 
thing, anything  that  will  be  to  your  best 
interest  and  to  my  least  disadvantage.  I 
can  better  afford  the  loss  than  you  can,  and 
I  want  to  stand  back  of  you  to  the  greatest 
degree  possible  in  all  rational  considera- 
tion. Between  us  we  ought  to  be  able  to 
devise  some  plan  that  would  let  you  out 
i36 


A  MONTH  AND  A  DAY  WITH  MUNSEY 

without  injury  to  your  reputation.  The 
sooner  some  move  of  this  sort  is  made 
the  more  I  can  afford  to  do  for  you  and 
the  better  it  will  be  for  you  in  every  way. 
Feeling  as  I  do,  you  see  how  unwise  it 
would  be  for  you  to  attempt  to  go  on 
seriously  with  the  work.  On  the  other 
hand,  it  would  be  very  unwise  for  you 
to  seem  not  to  go  on  with  the  work  as 
usual  until  some  definite  plan  is  fixed 
upon  between  us.  There  is  no  reason 
why  this  thing  cannot  be  handled  grace- 
fully, cleverly,  and  satisfactorily  to  both 
you  and  myself.  It  will  depend  very 
largely  upon  your  disposition  in  the  mat- 
ter, upon  whether  you  accept  my  view 
in  the  case  gracefully  and  reasonably,  or 
whether  you  oppose  it  in  a  way  to  annoy 
me. 

' '  Let  me  repeat  that  above  all  else,  above 
all  personal  consideration,  I  want  to  help 
you   to   the    greatest    possible    reasonable 
i37 


A  MONTH  AND  A  DAY  WITH  MUNSEY 

degree  in  getting  out  of  the  mistake  we 
have  jointly  made. 

"Let  me  say  one  word  more.  If  you 
prefer  to  stay  here  throughout  the  year, 
and  for  which  I  agreed  to  pay  you  a  salary 
of  $7500,  you  may  stay.  I  made  a  year's 
agreement  with  you  at  this  salary,  and  it 
shall  stand  if  you  wish  it  to,  but  to  my  mind 
it  would  be  a  most  unwise  thing  for  you 
to  do. 

* '  Very  truly  yours, 

(Signed)  "FRANK  A.  MUNSEY." 

A  Sunday  and  a  holiday  came  with  this 
letter.  Perhaps  you  can  imagine  the 
feelings  of  a  man  who,  only  a  few  weeks 
before  in  a  position  considered  to  be  the 
most  prominent  in  its  line  in  the  country, 
now,  in  his  change  for  betterment,  found 
himself,  at  an  inopportune  time  and  under 
adverse  conditions,  cast  out  into  the  ' '  cold, 
gray  world." 

1 38 


A  MONTH  AND   A   DAY   WITH  MUNSEY 

Notwithstanding  this  letter,  I  was  not 
crushed.  The  last  paragraph,  in  which 
Mr.  Munsey  put  into  writing  his  agreement 
with  me,  up  to  that  time  only  verbal,  was 
an  earnest  of  the  honesty  and  fairness  of 
the  man. 

As  an  uninterrupted  conversation  with 
Mr.  Munsey  was  quite  impossible,  I  wrote 
him  the  following  letter : 

"January  3,  1898. 

"Mv  DEAR  MR.  MUNSEY,  —  I  have  your 
letter  and  I  admire  the  frank  way  in  which 
you  have  put  the  matter.  I  have  naturally 
been  studying  you  very  closely,  but  this 
letter  tells  me  more  than  a  dozen  inter- 
rupted interviews.  You  are  a  wonder  to 
me,  and  the  more  I  see  of  you  the  more  I 
wonder  and  marvel  at  the  great  success 
you  have  made  and  are  making.  My 
study  has  developed  the  fact  that  you 
reason  closely,  but  sometimes  —  often  — 


A  MONTH   AND   A  DAY   WITH   MUNSEY 

your  quickness  of  perception  is  colored  — 
changed  —  altered  entirely  by  your  emo- 
tional instincts.  I  realize  that  you  are 
slow  to  put  confidence  in  anyone,  but  I 
say  most  emphatically  right  here  at  the 
start  that  you  engaged  me  for  a  definite 

*/ 

purpose,  and  I  should  have  your  confidence 
from  the  beginning,  and  that  confidence 
should  not  grow  less  until  I  make  serious 
mistakes  or  exercised  bad  judgment.  I 
came  to  you  on  the  record  I  have  made, 
and  when  you  say  I  lack  all  or  any  one  of 
the  business  qualities  that  go  to  make  up 
a  progressive  business  man,  you  accuse 
my  former  employers  of  lacking  business 
acumen  and  sense  and  imply  that  my 
business  friends — men  with  whom  I  have 
come  into  contact  and  know  me  for  the 
work  I  have  done,  know  me  for  the 
business  I  have  taken  from  them  personally 
—  are  blind,  ignorant  imbeciles. 

' '  If  you  were  manager  of  a  railroad  and 


A    MONTH   AND   A   DAY    WITH   MUNSEY 

engaged  an  engineer  you  would  tell  him : 
'  There's  the  train  ;  there  's  your  assistant ; 
there's  your  schedule,  go  by  it.  I  want 
you  to  run  that  train  and  I  '11  look  to  you 
for  its  safe  arrival  at  its  destination."  If, 
however,  before  the  train  started  you  told 
the  fireman  that  he  could  use  just  two 
shovels  full  of  coal  an  hour  and  gave  the 
conductor  and  trainbands  to  understand 
that  you  didn't  want  the  passengers 
hurried,  etc. ,  you  could  not  expect  results, 
until  such  time  that  you  decided  that  was 
not  the  way  to  run  a  train. 

' '  I  have  been  in  New  York  four  weeks. 
I  have  been  put  in  a  cage  and  you  have 
walked  around  and  looked  at  me  and  said 
to  yourself,  'He's  not  doing  anything.' 
I  knew  you  were  studying  me,  but  baffled 
at  every  turn  in  attempts  to  do  anything, 
I  could  do  nothing  but  think  of  what  was 
needed  to  be  done  and  of  the  results  that 
would  come  from  such  action. 


A   MONTH   AND   A   DAY    WITH    MUNSEY 

' '  Taking  up  the  advertising  end  of  the 
business:  I  do  not  overestimate  my 
capacity  to  do  for  you  in  this  line,  for 
it  is  run  in  the  most  expensive  and  un- 
businesslike manner,  and  the  results  are 
far  from  what  they  should  be.  Advertise- 
ments are  inserted  without  any  order; 
conditional  orders  are  accepted  and  the 
conditions  not  complied  with ;  advertise- 
ments are  charged  at  the  wrong  price  and 
charged  to  irresponsible  agents,  etc.,  etc. 
— the  general  idea  everywhere  being  to 
get  through  the  day  and  take  no  thought 
of  the  morrow. 

"My  judgment  tells  me  that  we  would 
have  just  as  much  and  more  business  if 
the  agents  and  their  solicitors  and  the 
advertisers  were  not  seen  so  often.  The 
principal  reason  why  advertisers  use 
your  publications  is  because  they  have 
value.  This  is  the  thing  that  should  be 
impressed  upon  advertisers  by  letter,  by 


A   MONTH   AND    A   DAY    WITH    MUNSEY 

circular,  by  an  occasional  personal  call. 
Where  friendship  secures  one  order, 
merit,  rate,  and  circulation  bring  twenty. 
Too  much  personal  solicitation  is  annoy- 
ing to  the  advertiser  and  agent.  This 
personal  plea  of  asking  advertisers  and 
agents  to  send  you  advertisements  to 
put  money  in  your  pocket  is  a  false 
theory  to  work  upon — every  prominent 
advertiser  and  agent  will  tell  you 
this. 

"I  believe  that  both  Mr.  Barber  and 
Mr.  Clark  gave  you  their  honest  opinion. 
Mr.  Barber  said  in  your  words,  '  If  Mr. 
Thayer  was  at  the  head  of  your  advertising 
department  you  would  need  to  have  no 
thought  of  it.'  He  meant  this,  and  I  am 
certain  that  he  is  right  in  the  matter,  for 
I  managed  an  advertising  department  with 
an  income  of  nearly  a  half  million  dollars, 
and  there  is  no  reason  to  think  for  one 
moment  that  when  I  left  that  department 


A  MONTH  AND  A  DAY  WITH  MUNSEY 

I  also  left  my  brain,  my  sense,  and  my 
judgment  in  Philadelphia. 

' '  You  didn't  tell  all  that  Mr.  Clark  said. 
When  I  told  Mr.  Clark,  after  my  resigna- 
tion, that  I  had  heard  from  you  that  he  had 
said  good  things  of  me,  he  told  me  that 
you  wouldn't  tell  me  all  he  said.  This 
was  to  the  effect  that  I  would  do  for  you  if 
I  was  given  a  chance  —  if  you  would  let  me 
do  something.  He  also  affirmed  that  I 
couldn't  do  anything,  for  you  wouldn't  let 
me.  I  went  on  to  tell  him  that  I  didn't 
believe  anything  of  the  kind.  I  had  been 
with  two  large  concerns  whose  owners 
wanted  to  run  everything,  but  I  found  that 
they  were  very  willing  to  drop  part  of  their 
labor  on  my  shoulders.  And  when  they 
discovered  that  I  was  a  man  who  could 
assume  responsibility,  do  things  satisfac- 
torily and  bring  results,  they  were  glad  to 
have  it  so,  for  it  made  their  mind  free  for 
other  and  more  important  things. 


A  MONTH  AND  A  DAY  WITH  MUNSEY 

"With  you  now,  whether  you  believe 
it  or  not,  you  are  showing  the  strain  of 
overwork.  You  will  feel  this  more  as 
time  goes  on,  and  you  will  have  to 
drop  it.  What  better  thing  could  you 
do  right  now  than  to  throw  on  me  the 
advertising  end  of  the  business?  You 
•doubt  my  ability?  If  you  have  such 
doubts  it  is  because  your  overworked 
brain  leads  you  to  doubt  everyone. 
Your  great  business  needs  me  much  more 
than  I  thought  it  did.  There  is  lots  of 
work.  Much  time  is  wasted  by  lack  of 
a  little  system,  expensive  salaries  paid 
without  proportionate  results. 

"The  salary  of  $7600  that  you  are 
paying  me  is  meager,  compared  with  the 
results  that  I  could  show  at  the  end  of  the 
year.  How  much  money  did  you  lose  last 
year  in  unpaid  accounts  ?  Do  you  know  ? 
You  are  aware  of  the  fact  that  good  judg- 
ment in  this  particular  alone  is  worth  at 


A  MONTH   AND   A   DAY    WITH    MUNSEY 

least  twenty-five  per  cent  of  the  amount 
you  lost  last  year. 

' '  I  should  be  false  to  my  own  honor,  my 
loyalty  to  you,  if  at  this  time  I  should  give 
up  thoughts  of  making  your  success  much 
greater.  In  the  years  to  come  I  expect  to 
see  your  great  publishing  house  the  first  in 
the  land,  its  fame  world-wide.  I  antici- 
pate a  success  that  will  far  surpass  that  of 
Sir  George  Newnes.  At  that  time  I  will 
be  glad  to  stand  by  your  side  as  one  of  the 
faithful  lieutenants  who  has  done  his  part 
to  bring  this  about. 

' '  Look  around  at  the  men  who  have 
overworked  their  brain  —  the  result  is 
always  the  same.  You  may  have  more 
power  than  any  of  them,  and  I  believe  that 
you  have.  There  is  a  limit,  however,  to 
all  power,  all  endurance.  You  will  admit 
that  Sir  George  Newnes  has  made  a  won- 
derful success.  Take  him  for  an  example: 
Low  has  he  done  it?  By  looking  after 
i46 


A   MONTH  AND    A  DAY    WITH   MUNSEY 

every  department  of  his  business  ?  No, 
indeed.  His  advertising  manager  told  me 
in  London  that  when  Sir  George  wanted 
to  see  him  he  gave  him  twenty-four  hours' 
notice ;  when  he  wanted  to  see  Sir  George 
he  gave  a  week's  notice  and  the  appoint- 
ment was  made.  This  could  be  called 
'red  tape' ;  it  is  carrying  things  too  far. 

' '  I  know  that  I  can  manage  the  adver- 
tising end  of  your  business,  perform  all 
the  functions  of  the  business  management 
to  your  entire  satisfaction,  but  not,  how- 
ever, unless  you  believe  in  me,  in  my 
worth,  in  my  ability,  in  my  judgment. 

"It  is  a  necessity  for  you  to  have  loyal 
lieutenants  who  understand  business  me- 
thods. Your  business  has  grown  so  fast 
that  you  did  not  have  time  to  educate 
young  men.  You  have  engaged  me  as  a 
man  who  knows,  without  further  education 
or  training.  There  is  lots  to  learn  in  your 
great  big  business.  I  am  yet  a  young  man ; 


A   MONTH    AND   A  DAY    WITH  MUNSEY 

I'm  pliable  and  can  change  ways  to  meet 
the  situation.  You  need  the  benefit  of  my 
education,  my  training,  and  my  year's 
service  will  prove  this  to  be  true,  and  the 
'  bright  and  brilliant '  men  who  think  I 
have  made  a  mistake  in  coming  to  you  will 
hold  a  different  opinion  of  the  matter  — 
will  have  a  different  opinion  of  the  great 
personality  whom  I  now  hail  '  Chief. ' 

"Faithfully, 
(Signed)  "JoHN  ADAMS  THAYER." 

But  my  reply  did  not  change  the  state 
of  affairs.  Mr.  Munsey  rejoined  that  he 
had  given  thirty  days'  long,  deep,  earnest 
thought  to  the  problem  before  he  wrote 
me.  "Were  you  in  fact  a  man  of  all  the 
strength  that  your  reputation  gave  you, 
with  my  estimate  of  your  ability  you  would 
be  so  seriously  handicapped  that  it  would 
be  impossible  now  for  you  to  work  out  the 
problem  here  for  which  you  came." 
i48 


A  MONTH  AND  A  DAY  WITH  MUNSEY 

A  few  days  after  the  passing  of  the 
letters  I  sat  in  Mr.  Munsey 's  office,  which 
was  then  on  the  eleventh  story  of  the 
Constable  Building,  looking  down  on 
Fifth  Avenue.  It  was  raining.  The  flick-, 
ering  lights  helow,  the  hurrying  cabs  and 
people  all  told  of  the  end  of  another  busi- 
ness day.  It  was  the  end,  too,  of  my  term 
with  Munsey,  a  milestone  on  the  road  of 
my  career.  After  a  long-continued  con- 
versation we  had  reached  a  settlement.  I 
was  to  give  my  resignation  and  receive  a 
check  for  $2  Boo ,  and  that  I  might  go  abroad , 
an  order  for  one  page  of  space  in  ' '  Munsey's 
Magazine,"  worth  $5oo,  and  good  for  the 
advertisement  of  any  steamship  line.  This 
was  in  addition  to  the  salary  I  had  drawn 
weekly.  Financially,  the  settlement  was 
satisfactory,  but  I  was  keenly  disappointed 
to  lose  the  year's  service  and  its  consequent 
experience.  Mr.  Munsey  believes  himself 
to  be  a  close  reasoner,  and  this,  probably, 
1/19 


A  MONTH  AND  A  DAY  WITH  MUNSEY 

•was  the  cause  of  his  insisting,  in  defence 
of  his  arbitrary  action:  "  Thayer,  I  say 
again  that  I  will  do  anything  I  can  to  help 
you.  I  hope  you  believe  that  I  have  treated 
you  fairly.  But  I  must  reaffirm  to  you 
that  you  are  not  the  strong  man  your  friends 
represented  you  to  be."  I  started  to  inter- 
rupt him,  but  he  continued,  "Five  years 
from  now  will  prove  it,  whether  you  be- 
lieve it  at  this  time  or  not." 

If  you  were  a  scratch  golf  player,  and 
someone  to  belittle  your  knowledge  of  the 
game  said  that  you  and  Colonel  Bogey 
were  eighteen  holes  apart,  would  you  not 
feel  indignant  ? 

I  was  indignant.  I  jumped  to  my  feet, 
raised  the  forefinger  of  my  right  hand,  and 
looked  him  squarely  in  the  face.  Then, 
with  the  emphasis  an  energetic  advertising 
man  often  uses  to  clinch  an  important  deal, 
I  told  him  that  he  had  given  me  no  oppor- 
tunity to  do  anything  for  him ;  that  he  was 
i5o 


A   MONTH  AND   A   DAY   WITH   MUNSET 

absolutely  mistaken  in  his  estimate  of  me. 
I  closed  the  interview  by  assuring  him,  and 
the  words  came  deliberately,  that  it  would 
not  take  five  years  to  prove  him  wrong. 
Handicapped  though  I  might  be  by  his 
action  in  forcing  me  out  without  a  chance 
to  show  my  ability,  I  would  do  it  in  less 
time. 


CHAPTER  EIGHT 
A  YEAR  WITH  A  NEWSPAPER 


CHAPTER  EIGHT 
A  YEAR  WITH  A  NEWSPAPER 

JUT  I  did  not  go  abroad. 
Indeed,  I  still  have  among 
my  assets  the  order  for  a 
page  of  space  in  ' '  Munsey's 
Magazine";  I  toured  New 
\ork's  publishing  houses  instead,  looking 
for  another  position.  It  was  not  a  cheer- 
ing experience.  For  gossip,  no  village 
sewing  circle  can  surpass  the  advertising 
fraternity  of  the  American  metropolis.  A 
story  will  illustrate  its  possibilities.  Two 
well-known  advertising  men  agreed  to  say 
to  the  first  magazine  solicitor  they  met, 
' '  Have  you  heard  that  Mixon  is  to  make 
a  change?"  Upon  a  reply  in  the  negative, 
they  were  to  add,  "Well,  if  you  haven't 
i55 


A  YEAR   WITH   A   NEWSPAPER 

heard  of  it,  don't  say  anything  about  it." 
Each,  it  was  understood,  was  to  speak  to 
but  one  person.  Now  Mixon  held  an 
enviable  position.  He  had  been  for  years 
the  advertising  manager  of  one  of  the  big 
magazines,  enjoyed  a  very  handsome  salary, 
and  entertained  no  thought  whatever  of 
leaving  so  snug  a  berth.  Suddenly  he 
found  his  peace  troubled.  Forty-eight 
hours  after  the  jokers  dropped  their  seed 
on  Broadway,  it  bore  fruit  in  Chicago  in 
the  breast  of  a  man  who  wanted  to  suc- 
ceed Mixon  and  wired  to  bespeak  his 
influence.  This  was  but  a  foretaste.  The 
next  few  days  showered  him  with  con- 
gratulations, and  his  bewildered  firm  with 
inquiries  and  applications  for  the  position 
he  was  to  vacate.  There  was  nothing 
vague  or  halfway  about  these  statements. 
They  had  a  ring  of  downright  fact  which 
his  employers  thought  demanded  explana- 
tion. In  the  upshot,  the  victim  even  felt  it 
i56 


A  YEAR   WITH   A  NEWSPAPER 

necessary  to  announce  in  "  Printer's  Ink," 
an  advertising  journal,  that  the  rumors 
were  absolutely  without  foundation. 

Such  conditions  are  more  amusing  to 
hear  about  than  to  confront,  but  facing 
the  gossip  myself,  I  took  a  Mark  Tapley 
pride  in  being  jolly  under  depressing  cir- 
cumstances. I  could  put  up  well  enough 
with  the  sorry-for-you  tone  of  voice  and 
the  I-could-have-told-you-so  friend,  but  it 
was  less  easy  to  learn  that  some  people 
thought  the  great  woman's  magazine  had 
made  me,  and  that  without  it  as  a  prop 
I  was  down  and  out.  I  had  known  men 
to  leave  good  positions  only  to  find  them- 
selves worse  off.  But  I  would  not  admit 
that  such  was  my  case.  In  a  dark  moment, 
however,  the  thought  did  come  to  me 
that  Mr.  Munsey  might  be  right  in  his 
estimate,  and  it  startled  me  to  such  an 
extent  that  I  put  my  head  in  my  hands, 
as  I  had  done  many  times  before  when  the 
167 


A  YEAR   WITH  A  NEWSPAPER 

occasion  was  less  serious,  and  fought  the 
issue  squarely  to  a  finish.  Reviewing 
the  long  struggle  I  had  made,  I  could 
come  to  but  one  conclusion :  I  had  been 
dumped  out  on  my  life's  journey  by  an 
accident.  I  had  misjudged  not  myself, 
but  my  vehicle. 

While  I  cast  about  for  exactly  the  best 
opening,  I  deemed  it  best  to  ' '  get  out  of 
the  wet,"  as  the  saying  goes,  and  my 
umbrella  took  a  form  I  had  little  antici- 
pated. My  calls  on  the  publishers  and 
advertising  men  had  been  fruitless.  My 
Munsey  salary,  which  was  known,  seemed 
to  stand  as  a  bar,  and  no  offers  were 
forthcoming.  In  the  vast  quantity  of 
information  I  collected  in  these  rounds, 
however,  I  came  across  the  serviceable 
hint  that  "The  Boston  Journal,"  a  daily 
newspaper,  needed  an  advertising  manager. 
I  cannot  say  I  was  tempted.  Indeed,  when 
I  recalled  my  first  newspaper  experience, 
i58 


A  YEAR  WITH  A   NEWSPAPER 

it  took  courage  to  face  the  prospect  at  all. 
While  I  was  in  Philadelphia,  as  I  have 
mentioned,  I  had  several  opportunities  to 
become  advertising  manager  for  dailies, 
but  I  did  not  look  favorably  on  such  work. 
That  they  appeared  daily  was  one  great 
drawback.  Another,  more  vital,  was  the 
fact  that  they  then  thought  nothing  of 
running  all  sorts  of  patent  medicine  and 
objectionable  advertising. 

But  a  newspaper  was  better  than  stag- 
nation, so  off  went  a  typewritten  letter  to 
Stephen  O'Meara,  who  was  the  ' '  Journal's  " 
publisher.  In  applying  for  the  position  I 
pointed  out  that  there  were  some  things, 
as  yet  untried  by  dailies,  which  could  be 
pushed  to  success  with  a  strong  conservative 
paper  such  as  his  own .  The  advertisements 
could  be  set  in  a  manner  new  to  Boston ; 
they  could  be  written  more  effectively ;  they 
could  be  illustrated  artistically  —  all  with 
the  aim  of  attracting  the  large  drygoods 


A  YEAR   WITH   A  NEWSPAPER 

houses  which,  unlike  Wanamaker's  and 
the  great  firms  of  other  cities,  neglected  to 
make  adequate  use  of  publicity.  This  letter 
appealed  to  Mr.  O'Meara,  as  did  my  reply 
when,  at  a  later  conference,  he  broached 
the  question  of  pay.  I  said  frankly  that  I 
did  not  wish  a  big  salary — just  enough  to 
live  on  would  do  ;  but  what  I  did  want  was 
a  percentage  of  the  increased  business  which 
I  would  bring  to  his  paper.  This  suited 
him  precisely,  and  I  once  more  took  up 
life  in  my  old  home. 

Naturally,  I  brought  a  fresh  pair  of  eyes 
to  bear  upon  my  birthplace.  Boston,  as 
one  of  her  noted  sons  has  said,  is  unlike 
other  great  American  cities.  "  Some  of 
her  institutions,  through  antiquity  or  asso- 
ciation, have  acquired  a  positive  sanctity. 
Pedigree  is  important.  The  average  in- 
habitant spends  much  of  his  time  watching 
the  grandson  of  his  neighbor's  father  to  see 
the  old  man's  characteristics  crop  out  in 
i  Go 


A  YEAR   WITH  A  NEWSPAPER 

him.  The  boy's  failures  will  be  remem- 
bered against  his  own  offspring  fifty  years 
hence.  It  is  a  city  of  long  memories  and 
traditions."  I  now  met  this  dead  weight 
of  the  past  at  every  turn.  With  "The 
Ladies'  Home  Journal"  I  had  dealt  with 
large  advertisers,  and  I  expected  to  reach 
a  similar  clientele  here.  But  the  pillars  of 
Boston  commerce  were  another  race  of 
beings  altogether.  As  regards  advertising, 
the  great  majority  of  dry  goods  merchants 
still  dwelt  in  the  Middle  Ages.  They  put 
in  a  new  elevator  occasionally ;  they  now 
and  then  enlarged  their  stores ;  but,  pros- 
perous by  Boston  standards,  they  saw  no 
reason  why  they  should  change  their  out- 
worn methods  of  advertising.  Entrenched 
behind  their  Chinese  Wall  of  indifference, 
I  found  them  as  difficult  to  get  at  as  the 
residents  of  Bar  Harbor,  who,  in  my  one 
experience  as  a  book  agent,  would  neither 
see  me  nor  the  volume  I  had  to  sell. 
161 


A   YEAR    WITH    A    NEWSPAPER 

Finally,  I  drove  an  entering  wedge  with 
the  house  of  Shepard,  Norwell  &.  Company. 
Mr.  Edward  E.  Cole,  the  junior  partner, 
a  man  of  keen  business  caliber  and  old- 
school  amiability,  became  interested  in  my 
ideas,  and  told  me  he  had  planned  a  similar 
innovation  some  time  before  with  Mr. 
Lorin  F.  Deland,  whose  advertisements, 
though  simple,  were  remarkably  effective. 
Mr.  Cole  ordered  a  half-page  advertisement 
to  appear  weekly  for  six  months.  I  was 
not  only  to  advise  and  suggest,  but  write 
and  illustrate  the  items  in  any  manner  I 
saw  fit.  In  pursuance  of  this  plan  I  would 
even  take  hats  and  garments  of  various 
sorts  from  the  store  for  an  artist  to  sketch 
before  I  wrote  my  own  copy.  With  this 
beginning  one  would  think,  as  I  thought, 
that  other  firms  would  prove  easily  acces- 
sible, but  such  was  not  the  case.  Often 
the  heads  of  houses  refused  to  see  me  at 
all,  and  the  one  chance  I  had  of  talking  to 
162 


A    YEAR    WITH   A   NEWSPAPER 

perhaps  the  most  prominent  of  them  was 
obtained  by  standing  guard  till  he  issued 
from  his  private  office.  I  approached  him, 
stopped  when  he  stopped,  walked  on  when 
he  walked,  and  so,  following  him  round 
his  great  establishment  as  he  made  a  journey 
to  a  distant  department,  I  put  mj  argument 
as  best  I  could.  He  would  hardly  listen 
and  kept  referring  me  to  his  advertising 
manager,  a  man  without  power,  on  whom 
1  had  already  wasted  many  hours.  Know- 
ing that  his  prejudice  against  my  paper 
had  its  source  in  an  offensive  news  item, 
I  pointed  out  that  years  had  elapsed  since 
it  appeared;  that  the  "Journal"  was 
under  entirely  new  management  and,  a 
stronger  medium  in  every  way,  would 
bring  him  sure  returns  for  his  advertising 
if  he  would  only  try  it.  It  was  no  use. 
This  was  Boston  of  the  long  memory. 
He  could  not,  even  for  profit,  forgive 
the  paper  which  long  ago  exploited  the 
i63 


A  YEAR  WITH  A  NEWSPAPER 

news  that   his   son  had   married  without 
his  consent. 

But  I  had  been  in  similar  predicaments 
and  had  no  doubt  of  the  outcome.  I  re- 
membered an  amended  proverb  quoted 
by  a  former  employer :  ' '  All  things  come 
round  to  him  who  will  but  wait" — if  he 
hustles  while  he  waits.  My  task  was  to 
build  up  such  a  medium  as  would  compel 
people  to  advertise.  I  had  already  abol- 
ished the  black,  inartistic  type  used  by 
other  Boston  dailies  for  headings  and  ad- 
vertisements, and  the  new  faces  wrought 
a  great  improvement  in  our  typographical 
appearance.  But  I  realized  that  something 
more  unusual  than  this  must  be  done  to 
acquaint  advertisers  with  the  fact  that  the 
"Journal"  had  taken  on  a  new  lease  of 
life  and  energy.  It  has  fallen  to  me  more 
than  once  in  my  experience  to  hit  on  ideas 
in  advance  of  the  times,  and  the  proposi- 
tion it  now  occured  to  me  to  employ  was 
1 64 


A   YEAR   WITH    A  NEWSPAPER 

one  which  later  became  very  popular,  and 
under  the  name  of  Sunday  Supplement,  is 
a  feature  of  many  newspapers  in  America. 
I  suggested  to  Mr.  O'Meara  that  he  reduce 
the  "  Sunday  Journal"  to  half  its  size,  and 
using  a  larger  type  and  better  paper,  make 
it  in  effect  a  weekly  magazine,  with  the  news 
of  the  world  thrown  in  for  good  measure. 
He  began  to  smile,  as  I  continued,  and  took 
from  a  drawer  of  his  desk  a  showing  of 
half  the  Sunday  issue  in  the  form  I  advo- 
cated. He  was  pleased  that  he  had  antici- 
pated my  suggestion  by  a  year  or  more, 
and  as  this  made  my  own  way  easier,  I 
was  no  less  glad.  Few  men  of  ideas  get 
anywhere  in  this  world  unless  they  harness 
power  to  their  originality.  The  valuable 
idea  is  the  idea  which — in  the  expressive 
slang  of  the  day — delivers  the  goods. 

So  it  was  that,  barring  the  news  section, 
the  Sunday  paper  was  halved  in  size  and 
doubled  in  quantity  of  pages.     The  type 
i65 


A   YEAR   WITH  A  NEWSPAPER 

and  paper  did  not  conform  to  my  plan, 
but  we  had  taken  the  step,  which  was  the 
main  thing.  Following  up  the  campaign, 
I  urged  Mr.  O'Meara  to  publish  daily  the 
figures  of  our  growing  circulation.  To 
this  he  demurred,  saying  that  we  would 
suffer  by  comparison  with  the  grossly  over- 
stated statement  of  the  "Boston  Herald." 
But  just  here  seemed  to  me  our  oppor- 
tunity. His  knowledge  of  the  "Herald's" 
real  standing  being  exact,  I  persuaded  him 
to  offer  to  give  $1000  or  so  to  some 
hospital  if  our  rival  could  prove  to  a 
selected  committee  of  advertisers  that  its 
circulation  came  within  fifty  thousand  of 
its  printed  claims.  This  appealed  to  him, 
and  we  were  soon  in  the  thick  of  a  circu- 
lation war  with  the  battery  all  on  our  side. 
The  breastworks  of  the  enemy  were  soon 
leveled  by  the  pungent  editorials  for  which 
Stephen  O'Meara  was  noted,  and  not  long 
afterward,  with  a  change  of  management, 
1 66 


A   YEAR   WITH  A   NEWSPAPER 

the  colors   fell    too,    and    the    circulation 
figures  were  withdrawn. 

This  controversy  and  the  change  in  size 
proved  most  effective.  Circulation  in- 
creased and  orders  for  advertising  so  multi- 
plied that  one  Sunday,  in  addition  to  many 
columns  of  smaller  advertisements,  I  mar- 
shaled eleven  full-page  announcements  of 
local  houses.  As  the  receipts  naturally 
showed  a  healthy  growth  of  several  thou- 
sand dollars  each  week,  I  deemed  the  time 
ripe  to  ask  my  chief  to  put  our  scheme 
through  in  its  entirety.  But  Boston  con- 
servatism once  more  blocked  the  march  of 
progress.  He  was  gratified  with  my  work, 
but  stronger  than  his  ambition  to  see  the 
"Journal"  use  better  paper,  larger  type, 
and  modern  illustrations,  was  his  wish  to 
repay  his  friends  some  of  the  money  they 
had  advanced  him  to  secure  control  of  the 
property.  My  argument  that  they  were 
wealthy,  had  no  need  of  the  money,  and 
167 


A   YEAR    WITH  A    NEWSPAPER 

would  beyond  doubt  approve  of  the  cbange 
was  of  no  avail.  He  agreed  in  theory,  but 
balked  at  practice. 

In  two  other  things  I  met  disappoint- 
ment. I  wanted  to  see  advertisements 
take  their  proper  place  at  the  bottom  of 
the  page,  instead  of  alongside  reading 
matter  at  the  top  in  the  clumsy  fashion  to 
which  Boston  still  clung ;  and  I  longed 
for  authority  to  turn  all  objectionable 
advertisements  from  the  door.  But  these 
policies  involved  decreased  receipts  for  an 
indefinite  period,  and  decreased  receipts, 
though  they  meant  an  up-to-date  publica- 
tion, were  unpopular  in  the  counting 
room.  I  made  the  best  of  the  situation, 
hoping  presently  to  see  a  loophole  for 
further  reform,  but  the  future,  instead  of 
accommodating  me,  produced  the  Spanish 
War.  This  event,  while  not  materially 
affecting  Boston,  made  a  vast  difference  in 
the  plans  of  general  advertisers,  and  with 
1 68 


A  YEAR  WITH  A   NEWSPAPER 

the  cancellation  of  orders  of  this  class,  I 
found  that  my  successful  local  work  merely 
stopped  the  gap  of  a  deficit.  After  the 
battle  of  Santiago,  the  general  advertising 
returned,  and  this,  coupled  with  my  local 
business,  plainly  indicated  that  if  I  could 
renew  my  contract  on  the  same  terms,  my 
second  year  would  net  me  a  handsome 
income.  When  the  matter  came  up  for 
discussion,  however,  I  was  again  made  to 
realize  that  I  dwelt  in  the  city  of  sanctified 
traditions.  I  was  told  that  for  the  year  to 
come  I  must  be  limited  to  $7600,  which 
was  "a  good  salary  for  Boston."  This 
final  example  of  conservatism  so  disgusted 
me  that  I  resigned  on  the  spot. 

A  half  hour  in  my  own  office,  with  my 
head  in  my  hands,  altered  my  point  of 
view.  I  again  went  upstairs  and  with  a 
smiling  countenance  said  I  had  thought 
the  matter  over  and  concluded  that,  after 
months  of  hard  work,  day  and  night,  I 
169 


A  YEAR   WITH   A  NEWSPAPER 

was  tired  out.  If  he  approved,  I  would 
withdraw  my  resignation  and  take  a  vaca- 
tion. Mr.  O'Meara  readily  assented,  as  I 
felt  sure  he  would,  and  I  went  to  Cuba. 

Vacations  have  properly  slight  relevance 
to  this  story  of  a  business  career,  but  as 
on  this  particular  outing  I  for  once  saw 
history  in  the  making,  it  perhaps  deserves 
a  digression.  Arriving  in  Havana  on  the 
afternoon  of  December  3i,  1898,  the  day 
before  Spain  surrendered  the  island,  I 
presented  to  Major-General  Ludlow  a  letter 
of  introduction  from  the  son  of  one  of  his 
close  friends,  and  asked  for  a  pass  which 
would  enable  Mrs.  Thayer  and  myself  to 
see  the  next  day's  ceremonies  at  the  palace. 
He  referred  me  to  his  Adjutant-General, 
who  was  with  him  at  the  time,  and  the 
pass  was  presently  forthcoming.  I  was 
unaware  that  President  McKinley,  out  of 
consideration  for  Spain,  had  cabled  in- 
structions that  the  ceremonies  should  not 
170 


A  YEAR   WITH  A   NEWSPAPER 

be  public,  only  the  militia  and  two  Press 
representatives  to  be  witnesses  ;  and  in  the 
same  ignorance  I  set  out  the  following  day 
for  the  palace.  American  troops  guarded 
the  building,  but  the  general's  pass  took 
us  by  without  delay  in  the  wake  of  a  group 
of  gentlemen  in  evening  dress.  Following 
their  lead,  we  entered,  by  mistake,  a  side 
entrance  of  the  palace,  and  to  our  surprise 
found  ourselves  in  the  private  apartments 
of  Governor-General  Gastellanos.  Know- 
ing no  Spanish,  I  could  only  extend  my 
pass  to  his  secretary,  but  the  card  worked 
its  immediate  magic,  and  amidst  bows  from 
the  assembled  suite,  which  made  our  way 
seem  like  a  royal  progress,  we  were  ushered 
to  the  throne  room.  This  great  chamber 
we  found  tenanted  only  by  ourselves,  but 
as  we  glanced  from  its  immense  windows 
into  the  plaza  we  saw  on  a  near  building 
a  group  of  Americans,  among  whom  we 
identified  the  wives  of  generals,  senators, 
171 


A   YEAR    WITH   A   NEWSPAPER 

and  other  notables  who  chanced  at  that 
time  to  be  in  Cuba.  Believing  now  that 
a  mistake  had  certainly  been  made,  I  dis- 
played my  pass  to  a  gentleman  in  a  won- 
derful uniform  and  was  assured  in  musical 
Spanish,  of  which  I  understood  not  a 
syllable,  supplemented  by  gestures  as  plain 
as  English  print,  that  our  location  for  the 
ceremonies  was  absolutely  perfect.  So  it 
proved.  I  looked  at  my  watch.  It  was 
five  minutes  to  twelve.  At  that  instant 
rose  the  solemn  strains  of  the  Spanish 
anthem.  As  it  ceased  there  was  a  mo- 
ment's silence.  Then  up  through  the 
casements  came  the  Star  Spangled  Banner, 
and  the  procession,  which  had  formed  be- 
low, wound  its  way  through  the  great 
portal  and  up  into  the  room  where  we 
were.  Major-General  Brooke,  and  the 
officers  under  his  command,  their  dress 
uniforms  and  yellow  sashes  a  bright  note 
of  color,  entered  first;  then  came  the 
172 


A   YEAR   WITH   A   NEWSPAPER 

swarthy  Cuban  leaders,  their  uniforms 
less  splendid,  but  their  dignity  beyond 
question ;  and  last  of  all,  General  Caste- 
llanos  and  his  staff.  The  scene  was  too 
painful  to  prolong.  A  moment  of  formali- 
ties and  it  was  over,  and  the  defeated  said 
farewell.  It  was  an  ordeal  for  a  man  of 
Castellanos'  temperament.  Tears  came  to 
his  eyes.  "  I  have  been  in  many  battles," 
he  faltered,  "  many  trying  situations,  but 
never  in  a  position  like  this."  Then,  as 
we  watched,  the  little  handful  of  Spanish 
troops,  headed  only  by  fife  and  drum,  set 
their  faces  towards  Spain.  The  drama 
which  began  with  Columbus  was  finished. 
Returning  to  my  desk,  I  took  up  work 
again  with  my  old-time  energy,  but  hav- 
ing by  now  gaged  the  possibilities  of 
Boston,  I  worked  with  an  eye  open  for 
another  position  elsewhere.  It  was  not 
long  in  appearing.  Just  at  this  time  Mr. 
George  W.  Wilder  obtained  control  of  the 
i73 


A   YEAR    WITH   A   NEWSPAPER 

Butterick  Publishing  Company,  a  million- 
dollar  concern  in  New  York,  manufactur- 
ing paper  dress  patterns  and  publishing  a 
monthly  periodical  called  ' '  The  Deline- 
ator." This  great  enterprise,  of  which  his 
father  had  been  the  brains,  had  through 
mismanagement  fallen  into  a  bad  way, 
but  by  hard  work  Mr.  Wilder  and  his 
brothers  finally  purchased  the  stock  in- 
terest of  Ebenezer  Butterick  and  secured 
the  direction  of  its  destinies.  Casting 
about  for  an  advertising  man,  he  consulted 
the  advertising  manager  of  the  American 
Tobacco  Company,  who,  at  Mr.  Wilder's 
suggestion,  wrote  to  ask  if  I  would  enter- 
tain an  ofier.  He  was,  he  remarked,  look- 
ing not  for  the  most  brilliant  man  in  the 
business,  but  .an  honest  one;  a  require- 
ment that  shed  a  certain  light  on  the  task 
with  which  that  man  would  have  to  cope. 
A  few  days  afterwards  I  went  to  New 
York,  and  a  brief  interview  settled  my 
174 


A  YEAR   WITH  A   NEWSPAPER 

engagement.  Our  plans  we  threshed  out 
a  week  later  at  Mr.  Wilder' s  country  home, 
Cheshire  Place,  in  the  New  Hampshire 
hills,  where  I  pointed  out  to  him  the  great 
possibilities  I  saw  in  "The  Delineator," 
and  showed  him  the  first  real  rate-card 
which  that  sadly  bungled  periodical  was 
to  possess. 


175 


CHAPTER  NINE 
BLEACHING  A  BLACK  SHEEP 


CHAPTER  NINE 
BLEACHING  A  BLACK  SHEEP 

^EORGE  WARREN  WILDER, 

the  real  head  of  the  Butterick 
Company,  has  a  sense  of  hu- 
mor. Returning  from  lunch 
with  him  and  some  of  the 
staff  one  day  soon  after  I  became  his  ad- 
vertising manager,  I  was  escorted  to  a  pair 
of  Fairbanks'  scales  in  the  shipping  depart- 
ment. With  solemn  mien  my  new  chief 
indicated  that  my  weight  was  to  be  taken, 
and  after  prolonged  adjustments  of  the 
various  digits,  it  was  as  gravely  announced 
that  I  tipped  the  beam  at  one  hundred  and 
eighty-eight  pounds.  Whereupon  leaving 
the  other  witnesses  of  this  rite  behind,  he 
took  my  arm,  led  me  by  devious  ways  to 


BLEACHING   A   BLACK   SHEEP 

an  obscure,  seldom-used  office,  and  care- 
fully closing  the  door,  turned  the  key. 

"You  have  been  here  long  enough,"  he 
said,  his  face  all  seriousness,  "to  know 
that  the  advertising  department  of  '  The 
Delineator'  has  been  grossly  mismanaged. 
We  have  had  no  fixed  rate.  For  years 
advertisers  and  advertising  agents  have 
had  no  confidence  in  us.  We  lack  char- 
acter. Now  I  believe  you  will  remedy 
this,  for  I  am  told  that  you  are  the  very 
man  in  the  advertising  world  who  can  do 
it  best  and  do  it  quickest.  It  means  much 
to  me,  for  I  have  great  plans  for  enlarging 
this  business.  You  will  have  a  very  hard 
job  to  bleach  this  black  sheep  of  ours,  but 
it  will  be  worth  while."  Then,  his  blue 
eyes  lighting  with  amusement,  he  added 
with  a  smile :  ' '  Forget  your  weight  taken 
to-day.  You're  going  to  lose  a  lot  of  it." 

I  found  the  sheep  not  only  as  black 
as  he  had  stated,  but  unsound  in  body 
1 80 


BLEACHING   A   BLACK  SHEEP 

in  other  ways  for  which,  as  an  advertising 
man,  I  had  scarcely  expected  to  prescribe. 
During  my  days  in  the  New  Hampshire 
hills,  I  had  blue-printed  the  possibilities 
of  the  future  so  strongly  on  Mr.  Wilder's 
mind  that  that  ever-active  organ  demanded 
prompt  and  tangible  results,  but  these 
involved  more  than  increased  advertising 
receipts.  Better  printing,  better  illustra- 
tions, improved  typography,  attractive 
front-cover  pages,  and  logically,  a  larger 
circulation,  were  all  imperative.  In  all 
these  matters,  outside  my  province,  I 
assisted  materially,  and  the  selection  of 
the  circulation  manager  and  his  assistant, 
the  art  director,  and  the  foreman  of  the 
composing  room  where  our  advertisements 
were  set,  also  devolved  upon  me  in  the 
course  of  my  service.  It  was  natural  for 
Mr.  Wilder  to  advise  with  me  in  these 
affairs,  for  his  own  knowledge  of  the 
publishing  business  was  meager,  but  my 
181 


BLEACHING   A  BLACK   SHEEP 

all-round  zeal  brought  down  on  me  the 
displeasure  of  the  heads  of  other  depart- 
ments, who  could  not  make  out  why  an 
advertising  man  should  suggest  and  push 
to  completion  ideas  which  did  not  pertain 
to  his  specialty.  They  did  not  know  that 
my  knowledge  of  publishing  included 
every  branch  of  the  business,  and  I  had 
no  occasion  to  explain.  Of  the  paper 
pattern  department — familiar  to  the  women 
of  countless  households — I  had  no  knowl- 
edge. Nor  did  I  seek  it.  I  believed  that 
if  I  concentrated  my  abilities  on  the 
problems  of  publication,  Mr.  Wilder's 
hopes  would  be  the  sooner  realized. 

Meanwhile,  I  had  my  particular  share 
of  the  black  sheep  to  look  after.  Of  my 
association  of  nearly  four  years  with  the 
Butterick  Company,  the  first  twelve  months 
were  at  once  the  most  difficult  and  the 
most  interesting.  My  arrangement  ran 
that,  if  I  increased  the  advertising  receipts 
182 


BLEACHING  A  BLACK  SHEEP 

by  $5o,ooo  during  the  first  year,  my  salary 
should  be  $10,000,  but,  this  incentive 
aside,  I  realized  that  the  plans  for  enlarging 
the  business  made  a  larger  income  from 
this  special  source  of  high  importance. 
With  a  circulation  of  nearly  half  a  million 
monthly,  "The  Delineator"  had  been 
issued  primarily  as  a  catalogue  of  its  pat- 
tern industry,  and  its  advertising  receipts, 
which  at  the  time  of  my  coming  averaged 
$186,000  a  year,  were  merely  incidental . 

It  is  very  difficult  to  establish  a  fixed 
price  for  advertising  in  a  publication  which 
has  never  had  one,  but  this  was  what  I  now 
had  to  do.  The  advertising  agents  of 
America  who  handled  the  business  which 
was  worth  while  had  lost  all  confidence  in 
' '  The  Delineator,"  but  they  knew  me,  and 
when  I  announced  that  the  rate  was  now 
two  dollars  to  all  comers  they  showed  their 
faith  to  a  man.  Perhaps  I  should  say, 
except  one  man.  There  was  a  Doubting 
i83 


BLEACHING   A   BLACK   SHEEP 

Thomas  who,  holding  the  magazine's  past 
in  sore  remembrance,  could  not  believe  his 
ears,  and  requested  me  to  put  the  amazing 
new  doctrine  in  black  and  white.  He  had 
lost  many  orders  in  the  past  because  of  the 
dickering  and  cutting  which  had  prevailed, 
and  wanted  a  letter  guaranteeing  him  a 
rebate  if  he  could  prove,  after  sending  us 
business,  that  any  other  advertiser  or  agent 
had  secured  a  lower  price.  I  not  only  gave 
him  the  guarantee  he  asked,  but  offered 
him  access  to  our  books,  files,  and  corre- 
spondence should  he  harbor  suspicion  in 
the  future.  I  had  never  met  the  man  or 
dealt  with  him  in  any  way,  but  my  letter 
convinced  him  and  he  became  a  constant 
client  thereafter. 

Once  made,  I  kept  the  rate  as  rigid  as 
the  laws  of  the  Medes  and  the  Persians, 
disappoint  whom  it  might.  This  some- 
times had  humorous  consequences.  Per- 
haps a  month  after  I  took  hold  of  the 
1 84 


BLEACHING  A  BLACK   SHEEP 

department  I  received  a  letter  from  Mr. 
Charles  E.  Raymond,  the  Chicago  manager 
of  the  advertising  agency  of  the  J.  Walter 
Thompson  Company,  enclosing  an  order 
for  one  of  his  customers  at  the  old  rate. 
He  explained  that,  on  account  of  absence 
from  the  city,  he  had  neglected  to  send  it 
before  or  write  me  concerning  it ;  and  as 
Mr.  Raymond  was  then,  as  he  is  still,  a 
dependable  man  in  his  field,  I  knew  he 
wrote  the  truth.  It  was  important  that  no 
exceptions  be  made,  however,  and  I  accord- 
ingly replied  that  I  knew  he  was  acting  in 
good  faith,  and  that  under  ordinary  cir- 
cumstances his  order  would  be  accepted, 
but  the  advertising  department  of  ' '  The 
Delineator  "  had  such  a  dubious  past  that 
I  would  do  nothing  to  stir  even  a  breath  of 
suspicion  in  the  future.  I  closed  with  a 
reference  to  the  man  who  lived  so  upright 
a  life  that  he  leaned  backwards,  saying 
that,  while  I  did  not  want  to  appear  to  play 
1 85 


BLEACHING  A  BLACK   SHEEP 

that  role,  conditions  were  such  that  I  must 
decline  his  order.  Mr.  Raymond's  laconic 
answer  ran :  ' '  Dear  Sir,  — You  are  leaning 
backwards." 

A  curious  paradox  of  this  question  is  the 
fact  that,  although  it  is  suicidal  for  a  pub- 
lisher to  have  more  than  one  price  for 
advertising  of  the  same  kind,  it  is  yet 
possible  for  a  publication  to  contain  in  the 
same  issue  announcements  of  three  adver- 
tisers all  charged  at  a  different  rate.  A 
rise  in  circulation  naturally  involves  a 
better  rate,  but  a  notice  of  an  intended 
increase  is  customary,  and  up  to  a  specific 
date  the  publisher  will  take  orders  to  run 
a  year  at  the  ruling  price.  Sometimes  a 
publisher  is  forced  to  take  such  action 
oftener  than  yearly,  with  a  corresponding 
shortening  of  the  time  allowance,  and  so 
it  fell  out  that  during  my  connection  with 
"The  Ladies'  Home  Journal,"  "The 
Delineator,"  and  later  with  "  Everybody's 
186 


BLEACHING  A   BLACK  SHEEP 

Magazine,"  there  would  be  advertisements 
at  different  rates  in  a  single  issue,  though 
the  periodicals  were  on  an  absolutely  one- 
price  basis  to  all. 

The  end  of  the  first  year  found  the  rate 
firmly  established,  but  the  receipts  of  my 
department,  owing  to  my  war  on  the  ob- 
jectionable advertisement  of  which  I  shall 
speak  in  detail  later,  fell  $7000  short  of 
the  expected  increase  of  $5o,ooo.  But 
I  was  highly  pleased  with  our  showing 
notwithstanding,  for  "The  Delineator" 
was  unmistakably  on  the  upward  march. 
Moreover,  my  work  gained  me  the  maxi- 
mum salary  after  all.  The  undesirable 
advertising  I  had  refused  was  taken  into 
account,  for,  as  one  of  the  firm  pointed 
out,  there  was  no  reason  why  I  should  be 
punished  for  working  for  the  best  interests 
of  the  business. 

During  all  this  time  I  had  in  the  back 
of  my  head  the  intention  to  get  my  old- 
187 


BLEACHING   A  BLACK   SHEEP 

time  friend  and  co-worker  of  ' '  The  Ladies' 
Home  Journal"  to  assist  me.  I  needed 
the  strongest  possible  man  in  the  West, 
and  that  man,  beyond  a  shadow  of  a 
doubt,  was  Thomas  Balmer.  But  how 
should  I  persuade  Mr.  Wilder  to  add  to 
my  staff  an  assistant  who  would  demand 
a  salary  equal  to  my  own?  The  right 
opportunity  seldom  fails  to  come  to  one 
who  can  curb  his  impatience  and  bide  his 
time.  I  recognized  the  "psychological 
moment,"  which  novelists  are  so  fond 
of  mentioning,  as  I  sat,  fishing-rod  in 
hand,  on  the  bank  of  a  pond  at  Cheshire 
Place. 

"  I'm  going  to  get  a  stronger  man  in 
the  West  very  soon,"  I  dropped  as  casually 
as  if  it  were  a  mere  question  of  bait. 

"Are  you?"  said  my  host.  "Who  is 
he?" 

"Thomas  Balmer.     The  strongest  ad- 
vertising man  in  the  world." 
1 88 


BLEACHING   A   BLACK   SHEEP 

"What!"  smiled  Mr.  Wilder.  "I 
thought  you  were  it." 

I  assured  him  that  Mr.  Balmer  had  no 
equal  as  a  result  getter,  and  was  un- 
doubtedly what  I  had  just  said, — the 
greatest  man  in  the  business.  With  this 
opening  I  proceeded  to  outline  his  progress 
as  Western  manager  of  "The  Ladies' 
Home  Journal,"  and  the  innovations  for 
which  the  advertising  world  in  general 
was  his  debtor.  The  question  of  cost 
followed,  and  I  said  that  while  I  knew  he 
had  declined  many  big-salaried  offers,  I 
believed  I  could  get  him  to  come  to  us  for 
my  own  salary  if  he  might  have  the  same 
increase  when  he  proved  himself  worth  it. 
Whereupon  Mr.  Wilder  interrupted : 
"Let's  go  over  to  that  other  pond. 
There's  more  fish  there." 

With  the  requisite  authority  I  left  New 
Hampshire  the  next  morning,  happy  in 
the  thought  that  I  was  sure  of  a  stanch 
189 


BLEACHING   A   BLACK   SHEEP 

ally  in  the  special  reform  I  had  so  close 
at  heart.  Even  more  serious  to  me  in 
the  bleaching  process  than  the  rate  was 
the  question  of  quality.  As  much  as  the 
company  needed  greater  receipts  and  as 
I  wanted  to  earn  my  maximum  salary,  I 
could  at  no  time  tolerate  the  thought  of 
any  compromise  with  my  arch-enemy,  the 
objectionable  advertisement.  I  longed  to 
drive  it,  not  only  from  our  own  magazines, 
but,  if  I  could,  from  the  printed  page 
everywhere.  More  than  any  other  pro- 
fessional ambition,  I  wanted  to  see 
American  advertising  clean. 


190 


CHAPTER  TEN 
THE  FIGHT  FOR  GLEAN  ADVERTISING 


CHAPTER  TEN 
THE  FIGHT  FOR   GLEAN  ADVERTISING 

)HEN  in  the  regeneration  of 
"The  Delineator's"  adver- 
tising department,  I  faced 
the  question  of  quality,  I 
lost  no  time  debating  a 
policy.  The  only  course  I  could  pursue 
was  the  one  to  which  I  had  so  far  consist- 
ently adhered:  all  patent  medicine,  ob- 
jectionable and  doubtful  matter  must  be 
declined.  But  where  draw  the  line? 
Fraudulent  advertising  is  objectionable 
always,  but  objectionable  advertising  is 
not  always  fraudulent.  There  are  grades 
in  advertising  matter  as  in  conduct.  Black 
and  white  are  easily  distinguished;  it  is 
with  the  grays  that  doubt  comes. 
198 


THE   FIGHT   FOR   CLEAN   ADVERTISING 

It  happened  that  one  of  these  neutral 
cases  arose  soon  after  my  coming,  and  I 
saw  in  it  a  chance  for  an  object  lesson 
more  forcible  than  a  Niagara  of  verbal 
argument.  There  turned  up  one  day  an 
order  for  a  hair  restorer,  an  advertisement 
which  had  found  "The  Delineator"  a 
friendly  medium  for  years.  I  decided  to 
decline  this  order,  but  I  wanted  the  com- 
pany to  know  what  I  was  doing;  the 
official  I  picked  out  to  consult  was  bald. 
As  I  put  before  him  the  large  advertise- 
ment of  the  hair  restorer,  with  its  "  Be- 
fore" and  "After"  cuts  of  a  man  as  ill- 
thatched  as  himself,  I  told  him  that  the 
order  amounted  to  $3ooo ;  that  we  had 
space  for  it;  that  it  had  run  for  many 
years  past.  I  added  that  to  me,  however, 
it  seemed  a  grave  error  to  accept  it  unless 
it  could  do  the  things  it  promised. 

"Do  you  believe  in  such  things?"  I 
asked. 


THE   FIGHT   FOR   GLEAN   ADVERTISING 

"I!"  he  exclaimed.  "Do  you  think 
that  if  there  was  a  remedy,  I  'd  have 
stayed  bald  for  thirty  years?" 

In  carrying  out  this  policy,  I  had  a  most 
invaluable  assistant  in  Mr.  Balmer,  who, 
with  his  high  ideals,  was  naturally  in  sym- 
pathy with  the  idea.  There  was  nothing 
halfway  about  our  reform.  It  struck  clear 
to  the  root  of  the  evil.  Many  advertisers 
promised  impossible  values  for  trivial 
amounts,  and  it  was  not  long  before  we 
announced  that  not  only  patent  medicines 
and  objectionable  advertisements  would 
be  declined,  but  all  which  were  extrava- 
gantly phrased.  Thus  an  assertion  that  a 
lady's  suit  worth  seventy-five  dollars  would 
be  sent  on  receipt  of  twenty-five  dollars  in 
cash  would  be  considered  ' '  extravagantly 
phrased"  and  the  order  declined,  unless 
personal  examination  proved  its  truth. 
It  is  difficult  to  explain  to  the  layman  the 
detail  with  which  every  announcement 
195 


THE   FIGHT   FOR   CLEAN   ADVERTISING 

was  censored.  The  word  "  cure"  had  to 
be  stricken  from  every  advertisement  be- 
fore it  appeared  in  our  columns.  If  a 
well-known  make  of  vaseline  was  said  to 
"cure"  sunburn,  we  obtained  the  adver- 
tiser's consent  to  change  the  word  to 
"relieve,"  or  declined  his  money.  In 
our  printed  communications  to  clients, 
as  well  as  in  the  magazine  itself,  we 
enlarged  upon  what  we  were  doing  in  this 
line,  and  made  a  bid  solely  for  high-grade 
advertising.  It  came  in  good  volume.  So 
much  so,  in  fact,  that  the  close  of  our 
second  year  saw  our  total  income  from 
this  source  nearly  $100,000  more  than 
the  year  before. 

But,  as  I  have  intimated,  my  crusade 
in  this  cause  embraced  a  wider  field  than 
the  columns  of  "The  Delineator."  I 
wanted  to  see  this  much  needed  purge 
universal.  Nearly  all  the  general  maga- 
zines inserted  advertisements  of  liquors, 
196 


THE    FIGHT    FOR    CLEAN   ADVERTISING 

patent  medicines,  and  other  matter  as 
questionable,  and  with  the  exception  of 
the  "Saturday  Evening  Post,"  published 
by  Cyrus  Curtis,  the  weeklies  were  also 
transgressors,  the  religious  organs  in  some 
cases  out-Heroding  their  secular  contempo- 
raries in  guilt.  The  chief  sinners  of  all 
were  the  great  daily  newspapers,  many 
of  which  carried  advertisements  grossly 
fraudulent.  I  was  characterized  as  a 
drastic  reformer  in  my  efforts  to  suppress 
some  of  this  shameless  trading  on  the  sick 
and  feeble-minded,  and  I  daresay  I  deserved 
both  the  title  and  the  epithet.  Certainly, 
wherever  I  saw  an  offending  head  I  hit  it. 
My  great  opportunity  came  when  I  was 
asked  to  speak  on  any  topic  I  chose  before 
the  Sphinx  Club,  an  association  of  men 
devoted  to  various  advertising  interests. 
I  delivered  this  address  at  the  Waldorf- 
Astoria,  October  8,  1902.  My  subject, 
illustrated  by  stereopticon  slides,  was 
»97 


THE   FIGHT   FOR   CLEAN   ADVERTISING 

' '  Should  a  Publisher  Accept  Fraudulent 
and  Objectionable  Advertising?" 

The  dailj  newspapers  furnished  me  with 
sufficient  ammunition.  Of  the  numerous 
humbugs  they  had  helped  foist  upon  the 
public  I  chose  three  conspicuous  examples 
for  comment:  the  ' '  divine  healer, "  Francis 
Truth;  the  so-called  Lucky  Box;  and 
'  'Five-hundred-and-twenty-per-cent 
Miller.  The  exploits  of  these  charlatans 
are  doubtless  graven  deep  in  the  minds  of 
their  victims,  but  the  general  memory  is  a 
thing  of  wax,  and  it  will  do  no  harm  briefly 
to  recapitulate  these  outrageous  swindles 
at  which  so  many  newspapers  of  America 
connived. 

It  is  the  press  of  New  England  which 
should  bear  the  odium  of  Francis  Truth's 
shameless  success.  This  quack,  schooled 
to  unusual  cunning  among  fakirs  of  the 
most  dangerous  type,  easily  found  com- 
plaisant publishers  to  print  his  advertise- 
198 


THE   FIGHT   FOR  CLEAN   ADVERTISING 

ments,  headlines  and  all,  in  the  guise  of 
news.  Thanks  to  their  trumpeting  of  his 
miraculous  "cures,"  he  established  him- 
self luxuriously  in  one  of  Boston's  best 
sections  and  surrounded  himself  with 
scores  of  clerks  who,  with  series  of  mani- 
folded letters,  "treated"  the  stricken  and 
deluded  thousands  who  could  not  flock 
directly  to  his  door.  To  those  who  did 
come  he  showed  a  trophy  room  decorated 
with  discarded  canes,  crutches,  and  braces. 
Among  these  convincing  relics  were  also 
displayed  the  charred  ends  of  many  expen- 
sive cigars,  for  even  the  smoking  habit 
came  within  the  range  of  his  divine  activi- 
ties. When  the  crash  came,  the  office  boy 
testified  that  these  stumps  had  been  smoked 
by  the  Healer  himself  after  his  exhausting 
labors  for  ailing  humanity.  But  there  were 
profits  before  the  crash ;  ten  months  of 
profits,  which  accumulated  at  the  astound- 
ing figure  of  $3o,ooo  a  week.  Then 
'99 


THE   FIGHT   FOR   CLEAN   ADVERTISING 

Francis   Truth  was   placed   under   arrest. 
The  publishers  escaped. 

Intellectual  Boston,  the  haven  of  all 
cranks  and  "isms,"  was  also  the  friendly 
nursery  of  that  monumental  fake,  Parker's 
"Three  Star  Ring  Lucky  Box."  This 
talisman,  which  cost  less  than  a  cent  to 
manufacture  and  sold  for  ninety-nine,  was 
made  of  wood  and  contained  a  suspended 
brass  ring  bearing  three  stars.  The  first 
advertisement  announced  that  "Boston 
was  mystified."  Trust  Boston!  It  fur- 
thermore stated  that  hundreds  had  been 
made  happy.  Its  heading  was  similar  to 
that  of  a  regular  news  story,  and  as  news 
it  undoubtedly  passed  with  careless  thou- 
sands. As  the  superstitious  paid  in  their 
money  and  the  swindle  thrived,  two- 
column  announcements  detailed  the  won- 
ders it  had  worked.  A  woman  lost  her 
valuable  watch  ;  ninety-nine  cents  invested 
in  a  lucky  box  recovered  it.  A  ship  went 
200 


THE    FIGHT   FOR   CLEAN    ADVERTISING 

down  in  fifteen  fathoms  of  water  ;  the  sole 
survivor  carried  a  lucky  box.  The  happy 
possessor  of  another  lifted  the  mortgage 
on  his  home  —  lifted  it  with  the  box.  A 
Wall  Street  operator  wanted  a  tip  in  a 
panic,  a  poor  man  wanted  a  job,  a  girl 
wanted  to  go  to  the  Paris  Exposition,  a 
spinster  wanted  a  husband  —  the  lucky 
box  brought  them  all  their  heart's  desire. 
The  lame  threw  away  their  crutches,  the 
drunkard  forsook  his  cups,  nothing  was 
impossible  —  in  the  advertisements!  The 
crowning  stroke  of  knavery  was  the  injunc- 
tion :  ' '  Successful  people  with  health  and 
wealth  are  requested  not  to  send  for  any 
more  boxes,  as  Mr.  Parker  prefers  to  de- 
liver the  remaining  lot  to  those  who  are  in 
greater  need  of  this  world's  goods."  Over 
seventy-five  thousand  of  these  boxes  were 
sold,  and  when  the  postal  authorities  in- 
tervened twenty  thousand  letters  still 
awaited  delivery.  The  newspaper  pub- 
201 


THE   FIGHT    FOR   CLEAN   ADVERTISING 

lishers  of  the  Modern  Athens,  who  ran 
this  advertising,  shared  in  the  loot  at  the 
rate  of  $3.5o  per  inch.  • 

W.  F.  Miller  spread  a  still  wider  net. 
He  began  his  financial  career  with  a  ten 
dollar  bill  loaned  him  by  two  friends. 
He  ended  it  —  after  handling  millions  — 
in  State's  prison.  Through  the  newspapers 
of  New  York,  Philadelphia,  Boston,  and 
other  cities  he  held  out  the  glittering  bait 
of  ten  per  cent  a  week  on  an  investment 
of  twenty  dollars.  And  he  paid  it — for 
a  while.  The  timid  pioneers  who  sent 
him  their  little  capital  found  themselves 
drawing  the  astounding  interest  of  52O  per 
cent,  and  every  man-jack  of  them  became, 
on  a  five  per  cent  basis,  a  willing  agent  to 
coax  others  to  send  their  savings  to  this 
wizard  with  the  Midas  touch.  The  ad- 
vertisements continued,  the  money  poured 
in.  One  week  saw  $70,000  withdrawn 
from  Boston  and  Philadelphia  savings 
202 


THE   FIGHT  FOR  CLEAN  ADVERTISING 

banks  to  swell  the  flood  which  at  high  tide 
reached  a  mark  not  far  from  $3, 000,000. 
Miller's  press  agent  styled  him  a  Napoleon 
of  Finance.  His  scheme  was  certainly 
Napoleonic  in  its  audacity.  Nothing  could 
be  more  simple.  He  paid  the  dividends 
out  of  the  principal. 

Advertising,  and  advertising  alone,  made 
Miller  and  Parker  and  Truth  possible. 
Unabetted  by  the  press,  they  would  never 
have  risen  from  the  obscure  ranks  of  the 
thimble  riggers  and  the  adepts  at  three  card 
monte.  And  it  is  not  the  publishers  who 
need  the  money  who  print  such  advertising ; 
it  is  not  offered  to  them.  It  is  the  paper 
of  good  standing,  large  circulation,  and 
high  advertising  rates  which  gets  the  busi- 
ness and,  open-eyed,  becomes  party  to 
the  fraud. 

A  bill,  introduced  recently  in  the  Massa- 
chusetts Legislature,  to  prohibit  the  publi- 
cation of  certain  paid  matter  in  newspapers 
208 


THE   FIGHT   FOR    CLEAN   ADVERTISING 

unless  marked  as  an  advertisement  will  be 
a  corrective  of  many  similar  frauds. 

Like  others  who  attempt  to  remedy 
existing  evils,  I  found  myself  in  advance 
of  the  times.  Nothing  showed  this  more 
plainly  than  the  difficulties  I  now  met  in 
trying  to  form  a  society  for  the  suppres- 
sion of  fraudulent  and  objectionable  ad- 
vertising. Prominent  men,  identified  with 
advertising,  when  asked  to  serve  on  the 
board  of  directors,  regretted  that  they  had 
not  sufficient  time.  Others  declined  for 
the  reason  that  they  knew  there  were  other 
men  better  able  to  cope  with  the  situation . 
I  vigorously  advocated  the  formation  of  this 
society,  engaged  a  secretary,  and  personally 
met  the  contingent  expenses,  but  disap- 
pointed at  the  lack  of  interest  shown,  and 
finding  it  required  too  much  of  the  time 
which  I  felt  belonged  to  my  employer,  I 
reluctantly  put  the  idea  aside. 

But  the  fight  itself  I  did  not  abandon. 


THE   FIGHT   FOR   CLEAN  ADVERTISING 

If  I  could  not  raise  a  regiment,  I  could  at 
least  do  my  part  as  an  independent  sharp- 
shooter. I  accordingly  stood  rigidly  by 
my  creed  in  practice,  and  by  letter  and 
word  of  mouth  did  what  I  could  to  win 
over  the  publishers  of  other  periodicals. 
This  private  campaign  had  one  striking 
result.  Among  the  letters  I  sent  out  was 
one  to  "  Collier's  Weekly."  It  was  of  the 
"Constant  Reader"  brand,  which  some- 
times has  an  influence  with  a  publisher. 
It  ran  :  "I  see  '  Collier's '  every  week  and 
I  find  in  it  patent  medicine  and  other  ad- 
vertisements which  '  The  Ladies'  Home 
Journal '  and  '  The  Delineator '  do  not 
insert.  Why  do  you  accept  such  adver- 
tising? I  am  sure  you  do  not  need  the 
money."  A  Philadelphia  man  fathered 
the  communication,  and  the  response,  duly 
forwarded  to  me,  was  cheering.  "Upon 
receipt  of  your  letter,"  it  read,  "I  called 
our  advertising  staff  together,  and  we  have 

2O5 


THE   FIGHT  FOR  CLEAN  ADVERTISING 

decided,  as  soon  as  certain  contracts  are 
completed,  to  discontinue  the  insertion  of 
such  advertising."  The  letter  was  signed 
by  Robert  Collier,  the  brilliant  son  of  the 
founder  of  this  great  house.  Occupied  as 
editor,  this  advertising  phase  had  not  been 
seriously  considered  by  him.  He  needed 
but  this  word  of  mine  to  set  him  thinking. 
Filled  with  crusading  zeal  himself,  Mr. 
Collier  not  only  drove  every  doubtful  ad- 
vertisement from  the  pages  of  his  famous 
weekly,  but  enlisting  the  trained  intelli- 
gence of  Mr.  Samuel  Hopkins  Adams, 
printed  the  series  of  articles  entitled  ' '  The 
Great  American  Fraud."  These,  com- 
bined with  the  vigorous  attack  made  by 
"The  Ladies'  Home  Journal,"  dealt  patent 
medicine  advertising  the  severest  blow  it 
ever  received. 


206 


CHAPTER  ELEVEN 
MT  MASTER  STROKB  IN  ADVERTISING 

&HE  Cinderella-like  transfor- 
mation of  "The  Delineator" 
gave  me  many  knots  to  untie, 
and  I  count  my  handling  of 
one  of  them  the  master  stroke 
of  my  advertising  career.  It  was  not  — 
as  might  be  imagined  —  a  contract  for 
advertising  space  footing  up  into  many 
thousands  of  dollars.  Contracts  of  from 
six  to  twelve  pages  of  space  were  not 
unusual.  This,  on  the  contrary,  was 
the  cancellation  of  an  order,  and  its  story 
—  with  its  sidelight  on  the  business 
methods  of  two  kindred  yet  widely  dis- 
similar nations  —  is  not  uninteresting. 
About  five  years  before  my  engagement, 
tog 


MY    MASTER    STROKE    IN    ADVERTISING 

the  Butterick  Company  entered  into  a  con- 
tract with  a  well-known  English  soap 
company  for  back-cover  advertising  in 
"The  Delineator"  and  a  pattern  catalogue 
or  two,  this  space  to  be  paid  for  quarterly 
on  the  basis  of  about  six  shillings  per 
thousand  circulation,  the  latter  to  be 
guaranteed  under  oath.  Two  years  before 
my  coming,  the  contract  had  been  renewed 
for  three  years,  with  an  option  for  still 
three  more  at  the  same  price.  Anyone 
can  understand  that  with  a  circulation  of 
five  hundred  thousand  at  six  shillings  per 
thousand  the  amount  of  money  thus  re- 
ceived for  the  back  cover  would  be  about 
$760.  But  here  was  a  virtually  new 
"Delineator,"  a  well-printed  and  well- 
made  publication,  with  page  space  twice 
the  size  of  the  ordinary  magazine,  and 
therefore  qualified  to  ask  twice  the  amount 
which  the  ordinary  magazine  of  equal 
circulation  could  demand. 
aio 


MY    MASTER    STROKE    IN    ADVERTISING 

Upon  learning  of  this  contract  with  its 
ill-advised  mortgage  on  the  future,  I  took 
the  matter  up  with  the  officers  of  the  com- 
pany, and  a  letter  was  dispatched  to  the 
London  offices  to  see  what  could  be  done. 
Nothing  was  accomplished,  however,  for 
the  London  representative  was  not  an  ad- 
vertising man,  and  when  he  broached  the 
question,  it  was  put  in  such  a  maladroit 
way  that  the  managing  director  of  the 
company  declined  to  cancel  any  part  of 
the  order.  Realizing  how  detrimental  it 
would  be  to  our  interests  to  have  such  a 
long-time  contract  on  our  books,  I  arranged 
to  sail  for  the  other  side.  I  had  met  the 
managing  director  on  a  previous  trip 
abroad,  and  knowing  that  there  was  really 
only  one  way  of  doing  business  in  Lon- 
don, I  decided  to  play  the  game  strictly 
according  to  English  rules. 

My  first  call  on  him,  therefore,  was  at 
a  time  when  I  knew  he  would  not  be  in 
an 


MY   MASTER   STROKE   IN   ADVERTISING 

his  office.  I  left  a  card  with  the  name  of 
my  hotel,  the  exclusive  Carlton,  which  I 
had  decided  to  patronize  because  I  remem- 
bered that  it  had  a  place  in  his  affec- 
tions. Two  days  later  I  received  a  letter 
from  his  secretary  asking  me  to  call  the 
next  day  at  five  o'clock.  I  suppose  my 
call  extended  over  an  hour.  We  talked  of 
London,  of  English  art,  English  cathedrals, 
English  weather  —  of  course  —  but  of  the 
purpose  of  my  visit  not  a  word.  Just  as 
I  was  about  to  go,  I  casually  mentioned 
that  before  leaving  for  Paris  I  should  like 
to  take  up  a  business  matter  with  him,  and 
asked  for  an  appointment.  He  as  casually 
regretted  that  as  he  was  leaving  in  about 
a  week  on  a  fishing  trip  he  feared  he  could 
make  no  appointment.  Finally,  however, 
he  so  far  sacrificed  his  sacred  routine  as  to 
ask  me  to  come  in  the  next  day.  I  was 
prompt  and  brief.  First  telling  him  of  my 
work  with  "The  Delineator,"  and  of  the 
212 


MY    MASTER    STROKE    IN   ADVERTISING 

great  strides  that  had  already  been  made, 
I  added  that  I  found  myself  handicapped 
in  my  progress  because  I  could  not  give 
an  American  advertiser  any  of  the  back- 
cover  pages. 

"What  do  you  want  me  to  do?"  he 
asked. 

I  thereupon  explained  that  since  Mr. 
Wilder's  son  had  secured  control  of  the 
company  he  had  enlarged  its  scope  materi- 
ally by  the  purchase  of  a  competing  com- 
pany, which  likewise  published  a  magazine 
for  women.  Would  he  not  be  willing  to 
give  up  six  pages  of  "The  Delineator" 
and  use  pages  in  the  other  publication 
instead  ? 

"Will  this  assist  you  personally?"  he 
asked. 

"Yes,"  I  said. 

"Then  I'll  do  it." 

I  cabled  my  office  that  evening,  and  a 

2l3 


MY    MASTER    STROKE    IN    ADVERTISING 

few  days  later  in  Paris  word  came  that 
the  first  page  thus  vacated  had  been 
sold  to  another  advertiser  for  $1200. 
But  there  still  remained  the  ill-starred 
option.  Waiting  till  the  existing  contract 
had  nearly  run  its  term,  I  brought  up 
the  question  of  its  renewal  in  a  letter 
to  the  manager,  in  which  I  took  pains 
to  state  that  I  had  looked  up  the  amount 
of  money  he  had  paid  us  for  adver- 
tising, and  was  surprised  to  learn  that 
it  amounted  to  over  $100,000.  I  rea- 
soned, of  course,  that  when  his  con- 
servative British  eye  fell  upon  this  good 
round  sum  he  would  feel  constrained  to 
reduce  his  advertising  in  our  mediums. 
And  I  was  right.  He  gave  up  his  option, 
discontinued  for  a  time,  and  when  his 
advertising  again  appeared,  the  regular 
price  was  paid.  By  reason  of  increased 
circulation  and  improvement  in  the  maga- 
zine, the  back-cover  page  of  "  The  De- 


MY   MASTER   STROKE   IN   ADVERTISING 

lineator"  brought  $2^00  within  two  years 
thereafter. 

In  the  campaign  to  lift  ' '  The  De- 
lineator's" circulation  from  the  five  hun- 
dred thousand  we  had  to  the  million  we 
obtained,  we  ourselves  became  extensive 
advertisers.  Daily  newspapers  and  other 
magazines  were  our  chief  mediums,  of 
course,  but  for  a  time  we  also  used  the 
billboards  to  familiarize  the  public  with  a 
catch  phrase  I  had  devised.  I  tried  more 
than  a  year  to  hit  upon  something  suitable, 
but  nothing  came  to  me  till  one  day  I  read 
an  article  on  the  psychology  of  advertising, 
by  Professor  Walter  Dill  Scott,  who  after- 
wards embodied  his  investigations  in  his 
two  books,  "The  Theory  of  Advertising" 
and  "The  Psychology  of  Advertising,"  in 
which  he  made  it  plain  that  the  direct 
injunction  "  Gut  this  coupon  out  and  mail 
it  to-day"  would  draw  more  replies  than 
the  less  emphatic  "Use  this  coupon." 

2l5 


MY   MASTER    STROKE   IN   ADTBRTI8IKG 

Acting  on  this  hint,  I  had  reproduced  the 
line  in  my  handwriting,  "Just  Get  'The 
Delineator,'  '  and  waited  to  see  if  the 
women  of  the  country  would  obey.  They 
did.  To  my  personal  knowledge  the 
phrase  even  tantalized  men  into  buying 
copies  to  satisfy  their  curiosity.  One 
hundred  thousand  dollars  were  spent  to 
popularize  this  phrase. 

Early  in  the  first  year  of  my  service, 
Mr.  Wilder  began  carrying  out  his  plans 
for  the  enlargement  of  the  business.  One 
day  he  said  bluntly :  ' '  Have  you  ten  thou- 
sand dollars?"  "No,"  I  replied,  my 
thoughts  skipping  to  the  Boston  savings 
bank  where  I  had  tucked  away  three  thou- 
sand of  Mr.  Munsey's  money.  "Not  all 
of  it,  but  I  can  get  the  balance." 

The  conversation  ended  as  abruptly  as 

it  had  begun,  but  it  had  its  sequel  later  in 

the    announcement   that   I    could    buy   a 

hundred  shares  of  stock  in  the  Butterick 

216 


MY  MASTER   STROKE   IN   ADVERTI8IKG 

Publishing  Company,  Ltd.,  for  $100  a 
share  if  I  could  raise  the  money  within  a 
week.  I  had  had  one  modest  experience  in 
finance  in  Philadelphia,  where  I  borrowed 
money  to  buy  a  small  block  of  "Ladies' 
Home  Journal"  stock,  which  I  closed  out 
on  leaving  the  city;  but  this  was  a  larger 
affair  altogether.  I  had  friends  —  and 
friends,  but  as  I  canvassed  the  $7000 
variety  I  racked  my  brain  making  a  list  of 
those  who,  having  the  sum,  might  loan  it. 
Eventually,  by  the  process  of  elimination, 
I  got  down  to  five  names.  I  went  to  the 
wealthiest  man  first.  He  lived  in  Boston, 
but  had  a  summer  home  on  the  coast,  and 
my  acquaintance  with  him  was  such  that 
I  went  to  the  latter,  and,  as  he  was  away, 
waited  for  his  return.  He  arrived  late, 
but  promptly  invited  me  to  dinner.  As 
we  took  our  coffee  afterwards  on  the  broad 
veranda  overlooking  the  ocean,  I  made 
known  the  purpose  of  my  visit.  He 
217 


MY   MASTER   STROKE   IN   ADVERTISING 

listened  carefully,  and  telling  me  that  I 
was  probably  paying  twice  over  what  the 
stock  was  worth,  advised  me  against  the 
investment.  As  he  had  related  his  own 
early  struggles  for  success,  first  as  a  clerk 
in  a  drug  house,  and  later  as  a  manufacturer, 
I  was  much  impressed.  I  knew  that  he 
was  even  more  than  a  millionaire,  and 
that  $7000  was  a  small  amount  for  him 
to  loan  me  if  he  believed  in  the  proposition 
as  much  as  I  knew  he  believed  in  me. 

So  reasoning  I  went  back  to  New  York. 
Conservative  Boston  had  taken  two  days 
of  the  precious  seven.  However,  there 
were  five  left,  one  of  which  was  Sunday. 
Two  Philadelphia  friends  were  next  on  the 
list,  and  working  late,  I  took  the  midnight 
train  to  the  Quaker  City.  Philadelphia 
may  be  quieter  than  Boston,  but  it  is  less 
conservative.  The  first  man  I  called  upon 
heard  me  out  with  interest,  told  me  that 
no  man  ever  made  money  until  he  got 
218 


MY   MASTER  STROKE   IN   ADVERTISING 

into  honest  debt,  and  promptly  said,  that 
as  I  could  probably  get  a  loan  from  a  bank 
of  sixty  per  cent  on  the  stock,  he  would 
endorse  my  notes.  I  was  elated,  thanked 
him  heartily,  and  departed.  I  thought  it 
wise,  however,  to  call  on  my  other  listed 
friend,  and  after  telling  him  my  story, 
mentioned  the  offer  which  I  had  just  re- 
ceived, and  asked  his  advice.  He  volun- 
teered to  loan  me  the  remaining  thousand 
dollars  upon  my  note,  but  thought  perhaps 
he  could  let  me  have  the  entire  amount  in 
cash,  I  to  send  him  the  stock  as  security. 
He  would  advise  me  the  next  day.  I  thus 
obtained  the  stock  in  the  parent  company, 
and  by  the  absorption  of  other  companies 
at  different  times  later,  my  ten  thousand 
dollars  doubled  and  tripled  in  value.  But 
that  is  another  story,  and  of  its  kind  most 
interesting.  When  a  captain  of  finance 
like  George  Warren  Wilder  transforms  a 
company  with  a  million  dollars  into  three, 
219 


MY   MASTER    STROKE   IN   ADVERTISING 

six,  and  then  twelve  million  dollars  of 
capital,  he  achieves  what  the  great  financier 
Morgan  did  in  a  larger  way  with  United 
States  Steel.  And  the  end  is  not  yet. 
The  profit  which  came  to  me  by  the  pur- 
chase of  this  stock  was  put  to  a  good  use, 
as  I  shall  soon  relate.  Had  I  followed  my 
Boston  friend's  advice,  this  story  would 
never  have  been  written.  This  was  my 
last  borrowing  experience,  for  I  went  to 
banks  thereafter — the  only  really  legitimate 
place  for  loans. 

Three  years  and  a  half  went  by.  The 
concern  which,  as  someone  has  pictur- 
esquely put  it,  began  with  a  capital  of 
"a  ream  of  paper,  a  pair  of  scissors,  and 
a  good  idea"  continued  its  steady  march 
towards  the  great  financial  success  I  have 
outlined.  The  share  my  own  depart- 
ment played  is  most  succinctly  told  in 
figures.  The  $187,000  received  in  adver- 
tising by  the  Butterick  Company  the  year 
220 


MY   MASTER    STROKE   IN   ADVERTISING 

previous  to  my  coming  had  grown,  in  the 
final  year  of  my  service,  to  over  $600,000. 
It  exceeds  a  million  to-day. 

One  day,  in  the  president's  office,  I  saw 
the  architect's  drawing  of  a  massive  stone 
edifice,  fourteen  stories  high,  to  be  built 
for  and  devoted  solely  to  the  business  of 
the  Butterick  Company.  Facetiously,  the 
treasurer  remarked :  ' '  Look  at  your  new 
building!"  As  I  looked  I  thought: 
"Many  a  true  word  is  spoken  in  jest." 
As  treasurer,  he  well  knew  that  my  de- 
partment made  it  possible. 

But  the  new  building  never  housed  me. 
Mr.  Thomas  Balmer,  my  successor,  occu- 
pied the  sumptuous  offices  of  the  adver- 
tising director,  for  before  the  structure 
was  roofed,  I  perceived  a  long-awaited 
opening  to  become  a  publisher  myself. 
I  had  resigned  many  times  before,  but  on 
this  occasion  I  took  my  employer  with 
me.  As  I  said  at  the  outset,  Mr.  Wilder 
221 


MY   MASTER   STROKE   IN   ADVERTISING 

has  a  sense  of  humor.  To  all  of  our 
advertisers  and  advertising  agents  he  sent 
a  printed  postal  card  on  which  my  own 
name  was  blazoned  in  type  which  broke 
all  rules  of  display.  It  read  :  ' '  Wanted — 
A  successor  to  John  Adams  Thayer." 


222 


CHAPTER  TWELVE 
PUBUSHING   ' '  EVERYBODY'S  " 


CHAPTER  TWELVE 

PUBLISHING   ' '  EVERYBODY'  s ' ' 

|URING  these  many  years  of 
hard  work  to  upbuild  other 
people's  publications  I  natur- 
ally had  at  the  back  of  my 
head  the  idea  of  one  day  be- 
coming a  publisher  on  my  own  account, 
but  my  special  knowledge  of  the  field  had 
taught  me  that  it  usually  meant  a  long 
fight  to  put  a  publication  on  its  feet. 

The  story  of  McClure's  struggle  had 
come  to  me  from  his  own  lips.  I  was  a 
Philadelphian  when  he  started  his  maga- 
zine, but  we  met  from  time  to  time,  and 
he  one  day  outlined  his  life.  Boyhood, 
his  college  days  at  Knox,  where  his  later 
partners,  Brady  and  Phillips,  were  his 
aa5 


PUBLISHING    "EVERYBODY  8 

classmates;  his  varied  experiences  with 
Albert  A.  Pope,  of  bicycle  fame,  with  the 
Century  Company,  with  his  own  syndicate, 
and  finally,  with  "McClure's  Magazine" 
—  all  were  passed  in  review,  and  I  remem- 
ber his  adding  that  he  had  reached  the 
enviable  position  at  last  where  he  did  not 
care  whether  he  made  fifteen  or  a  hundred 
thousand  dollars  a  year.  Change  and  rest 
were  what  he  wanted  now. 

And  there  was  Munsey.  I  could  not 
forget  his  eleven  heart-breaking  years,  his 
severe  toil  by  day,  his  still  more  exhausting 
drudgery  by  candlelight  when,  as  he  him- 
self has  said,  he  made  "a  complete  switch 
from  red-hot  actualities  to  the  world  of 
fancy,"  and  by  sheer  force  of  will  produced 
serial  stories  for  his  magazines  at  the  rate 
of  six  thousand  words  a  week. 

Both  these  men  gambled  with  their 
health  and  nervous  energy ;  and  as  I 
realized  the  risks  they  had  run,  because 


PUBLISHING  "EVERYBODY'S" 

of  their  ignorance  of  the  game,  I  resolved 
to  bide  my  time  until  I  was  assured  of 
two  things:  capital,  or  financial  backing, 
large  enough  to  lift  the  venture  over  the 
rough  and  stubbly  spots  always  found  in 
the  critical  first  year,  and  an  associate  as 
familiar  with  the  manufacturing  branch  as 
I  was  with  the  advertising  and  business 
end.  But,  the  novice  may  ask,  what  about 
the  editor?  The  prosaic  answer  is,  that 
with  a  few  notable  exceptions,  editors  do 
not  make  magazines  financially  successful. 
It  is  far  more  difficult  to  secure  a  capable 
advertising  manager,  and  he  will  demand, 
and  probably  receive,  twice  the  editor's 
salary. 

Cognizant  of  these  facts,  I  felt  that  I  had 
reached  another  significant  milestone  when 
Mr.  Erman  J.  Ridgway  advanced  the  idea 
of  purchasing  "Everybody's  Magazine." 
During  my  brief  term  as  Mr.  Munsey's 
business  manager,  Mr.  Ridgway  and  I 
227 


PUBLISHING    '    EVERYBODY  S 

served  a  common  employer,  but  as  he 
was  located  in  New  London  at  the  printing 
plant,  we  did  not  come  into  personal  con- 
tact. After  my  return  to  New  York,  how- 
ever, we  occasionally  met,  and  I  received 
various  letters  from  him,  which  I  showed 
to  Mr.  Wilder  in  the  hope  that  we  could 
find  a  place  for  him  as  superintendent  of 
the  mechanical  department.  We  were 
both  convinced  that  in  certain  lines  he 
had  ability  of  a  very  high  order,  but  the 
emergency  not  arising,  nothing  ever  came 
of  these  talks,  and,  till  we  joined  forces, 
our  actual  acquaintance  was  slight.  In 
some  of  our  casual  meetings,  however,  he 
had  mentioned  his  ambition  to  publish  a 
magazine  and  his  many  futile  attempts  to 
interest  moneyed  men  in  such  an  enter- 
prise, and  it  fell  out,  therefore,  that  when 
he  brought  his  latest  project  to  me,  I  saw 
in  him  the  ally  for  whom  I  had  been 
waiting. 

228 


PUBLISHING  "EVERYBODY'S" 

I  was  eager  for  the  experiment.  After 
nearly  twelve  years  as  an  advertising  man 
I  found  my  work  monotonous.  Aside 
from  a  steadily  increasing  salary,  which 
had  then  reached  probably  the  top-notch 
of  the  time,  I  had  lost  sense  of  progression 
and  craved  a  new  outlet  for  my  energy. 
I  found  it  promptly  now.  Monotony  and 
stagnation  were  unknown  in  the  days  which 
followed.  There  was  first  the  question  of 
finance.  To  invest  all  my  savings  in  a 
publishing  venture  was  not  my  intention 
at  the  start.  Ridgway,  who  was  younger 
than  I,  had  no  money,  so  in  talking  over 
plans  for  the  purchase  we  decided  that  we 
would  take  a  third  partner  and  let  him 
finance  our  work,  we  to  draw  small  salaries 
until  we  put  the  magazine  on  a  paying 
basis.  The  thought  of  coming  down  from 
$1000  a  month  to  $5ooo  per  year  had  no 
disturbing  influence  upon  me.  When  the 
matter  was  broached  to  Mr.  Wilder,  whom 
229 


PUBLISHING  "EVERYBODY  s 

I  selected  to  be  the  "angel,"  a  phase  of 
business  acumen  appeared  which  I  had 
not  anticipated.  It  was  simply  this :  I 
had  the  money  covering  one-third  of  the 
purchase  price  of  the  magazine — therefore 
I  should  back  the  venture;  Ridgway,  hav- 
ing no  capital,  could  not  do  likewise,  but 
an  insurance  policy  would  be  taken  out, 
covering  his  life,  the  premiums  to  be  taken 
care  of  by  the  company  until  we  had  paid 
the  purchase  price  of  the  magazine  out  of 
our  profits  and  were  out  of  debt.  My 
optimism  was  such  that  I  needed  no  time 
to  consider  this  serious  aspect  of  the  trans- 
action. I  assented  at  once. 

Definite  negotiations  were  then  begun 
by  Mr.  Wilder,  whose  experience  in  dealing 
with  big  men  and  big  figures  made  it  easy 
for  him  to  put  the  matter  in  such  a  light 
that  an  offer  of  one-fourth  less  than  the 
asking  price  of  $100,000  was  accepted. 
Fifteen  monthly  notes  for  $5ooo  each  were 
a3o 


PUBLISHING 


duly  signed,  endorsed,  and  delivered  to 
Mr.  Robert  G.  Ogden,  then  the  New  York 
partner  of  John  Wanamaker,  and  the 
magazine  was  ours.  To  be  sure,  the  notes 
had  yet  to  be  met,  but  as  the  payment  of 
the  first  lay  six  months  in  the  rosy  future, 
we  glowed  with  the  self-satisfaction  of  the 
improvident  man  who,  settling  his  debts 
in  similar  fashion,  said,  "I'm  glad  that's 
paid  and  off  my  mind."  Mr.  Ogden's 
final  words  showed  that  he  shared  our 
confidence,  and  read  to-day,  have  a  ring 
of  prophecy.  ' '  Boys,"  he  said  in  parting, 
"I  know  you  will  make  a  big  success. 
That  is  the  principal  reason  why  I  enter- 
tained your  offer  in  preference  to  others 
even  larger.  I  want  to  see  the  magazine 
win  out  handsomely,  and  as  I  am  retiring 
from  active  business,  I  shall  watch  its 
growth  with  great  interest.  I  believe  it 
is  now  on  such  a  basis  that  I  can  com- 
pare it  to  a  peach  tree,  well-planted  and 
281 


PUBLISHING  "EVERYBODY  s 

nurtured,  with  ripe  fruit  that  needs  only 
plucking." 

We  had  our  own  notions  about  culti- 
vating our  peach  tree,  however,  and  in 
our  talks  with  our  readers,  which  we 
made  a  special  feature,  we  stated  just 
what  kind  of  a  magazine  we  proposed 
to  give  them.  As  we  followed  word 
with  deed  the  news  promptly  got  abroad 
that  "Everybody's"  was  different  from 
the  common  run.  A  paragraph,  which 
appeared  in  a  well-known  weekly,  bears 
witness  to  the  impression  we  made,  and 
in  its  way  voices  our  ideal.  It  ran  : 

"  '  Everybody's  Magazine '  begins  to  be 
something  more  than  an  entertaining  ten 
cents  worth  of  fiction  and  articles.  An 
identity  has  been  developed — a  sturdy 
and  aggressive  identity  all  its  own  and 
full  of  interest  and  promise.  Thus  far 
the  magazine  has  prided  itself  on  the 
timeliness  of  its  features  and  the  healthy 
282 


virility  of  its  fiction.  Now  it  has  found 
itself  entered  on  its  own  mission,  headed 
out  on  its  particular  crusade.  The  key- 
note of  this  individuality  is  the  article 
by  Alfred  Henry  Lewis,  '  The  Madness  of 
Much  Money.'  It  is  safe  to  say  that  it 
will  he  generally  read  and  appreciated 
all  over  the  country.  Throughout  this 
number  the  magazine  shows  a  purpose 
to  depart  from  the  baleful  worship  of 
Mammon  and  its  possessors,  which  char- 
acterizes so  much  of  the  writings  in  cur- 
rent periodicals." 

When  I  entered  their  field,  many  pub- 
lishers offered  me  frank  sympathy,  but  as 
I  am  no  pessimist  I  gave  more  weight  to 
the  cheerier  welcome  of  Mr.  William  W. 
Ellsworth.  "I  congratulate  you,"  he 
said.  "You  will  get  a  lot  of  fun  out 
of  it."  As  the  secretary  of  the  Century 
Company,  I  felt  that  he,  if  anybody, 
ought  to  know,  but  I  understood  better 
233 


PUBLISHING  "EVERYBODY'S" 

the  special  brand  of  amusement  he  had 
in  mind  after  he  had  told  me  a  story  of 
Theodore  Roosevelt.  Meeting  the  latter 
in  Union  Square  one  piping  midsummer 
afternoon  during  his  stirring  term  as  Police 
Commissioner,  Mr.  Ellsworth  expressed 
his  surprise  that  he  was  not  then  enjoying 
himself  at  Oyster  Bay,  to  which  Mr. 
Roosevelt  characteristically  replied  :  ' '  Do 
you  think  I  could  get  more  real  fun  any- 
where than  I  am  having  right  now  in  New 
York?"  So  it  was  with  us.  We  worked 
hard,  but  the  work  was  as  absorbing  as 
a  game. 

The  objectionable  advertisement  loomed 
in  the  forefront  of  our  problems,  this  time 
a  more  insidious  enemy,  because,  like  the 
Greeks,  it  came  bearing  gifts.  In  com- 
mon with  other  general  magazines, 
"Everybody's"  at  the  time  of  our  pur- 
chase was  running  patent  medicine  and 
other  advertisements  at  variance  with  the 
a34 


high  standard  I  had  set  for  myself.  The 
test  came  over  an  order  for  a  number 
of  pages  of  a  headache  powder,  which 
reached  us  a  few  days  after  we  assumed 
control.  Just  at  this  juncture  the  adver- 
tising agent,  who  some  years  before  had 
edited  my  "smooth"  letter  to  Cyrus 
Curtis,  dropped  in  to  see  me,  and  hand- 
ing him  the  order,  I  asked  his  opinion. 
I  expected  him  to  confirm  my  own  con- 
viction that,  a  publisher  now  myself,  I 
could  do  no  less  than  practice  the  doctrine 
I  had  so  energetically  preached.  To  my 
surprise  he  disagreed. 

' '  Other  magazines  are  beginning  to  de- 
cline these  things,"  he  said.  "Take  the 
money  they  turn  away.  Wait  till  you 
have  many  pages  of  advertising.  Then 
you  can  afford  to  be  more  particular." 

I  thanked  him  for  his  advice,  but  the 
headache  "cure"  went  back.  The  next 
day  I  joyously  announced  to  my  associate 
a35 


PUBLISHING    " EVERYBODY S 

that  business  was  looking  up ;  I  had  even 
declined  several  pages.  Asked  for  par- 
ticulars, I  told  of  the  temptation  I  had 
put  away.  He  stared  his  surprise. 

' '  But  is  n't  that  good  business  ?"  he  de- 
manded. "'Munsey'  and  other  maga- 
zines take  it." 

* ' '  Munsey '  and  the  others  can  afford 
to  take  it,"  I  answered.  "If  we  can't 
make  a  success  of  'Everybody's  Magazine' 
without  running  the  stuff  I  have  declined 
for  so  many  years,  then  we'll  make  a 
failure  of  it,  and  I  shall  lose  my  money 
and  you — your  time." 

From  that  moment  we  were  in  hearty 
accord  in  this  policy.  The  next  day  I  sent 
broadcast  an  elaborate  announcement  of 
our  policy.  In  this  circular  I  told  of  our 
appeal  to  the  agent,  of  our  belief  in  his 
friendship,  of  our  regard  for  his  opinion. 
We  felt,  however,  that  in  this  instance  he 
was  wrong — hence  the  announcement. 
a36 


PUBLISHING 


We   had   use  for  the  money,  but  in  this 
reform  we  were  leaders,  not  followers. 

We  now  began  advertising  in  the  daily 
papers,  but  of  our  many  advertisements, 
the  first,  though  small,  is  best  remem- 
bered. As  our  initial  number  was  for 
June,  we  increased  the  output  only  ten 
thousand  copies,  for  magazine  sales  are 
less  as  summer  comes.  A  week  after 
publication,  the  entire  edition  being  sold, 
my  professional  eye  saw  an  opportunity 
to  advertise,  and  on  the  train  to  my  office 
I  formulated  an  advertisement  headed 
"Our  First  Mistake."  Reading  the  an- 
nouncement to  my  co-worker,  I  asked  his 
opinion.  The  day  was  a  sultry  one,  and 
we  were  both  fagged  with  the  work  on 
our  first  issue.  Without  hesitation  he 
said,  "Oh,  I  don't  know.  I  guess  not." 

"All  right,"  said  I,  and  the  advertise- 
ment in  a  dozen  pieces  went  into  the 
basket. 

287 


PUBLISHING  "EVERYBODY'S" 

I  had  much  to  do  and  knew  we  would 
get  along  without  its  aid.  No  one  little 
thing  could  stop  our  success.  But  on 
returning  from  lunch,  Mr.  Ridgway  said 
he  had  been  thinking  it  over,  and  that  he 
did  not  know  but  it  would  be  a  good  plan 
to  advertise  as  I  suggested,  and  thereupon 
mentioned  a  point  of  which  I  had  not 
thought.  So  we  sat  opposite  each  other 
at  our  big  flat  desk,  and  I  waited  for  him 
to  write  the  advertisement.  This  done, 
he  tossed  it  over. 

' '  What  do  you  say  ?  " 

I  read  it. 

"Oh,  I  don't  know.  I  guess  not,"  I 
replied,  and  back  I  tossed  it. 

He  thereupon  tore  the  paper  up  and 
threw  it  into  the  basket. 

The  humor  of  our  action  struck  us  in 

an  instant,  and  we  looked  into  each  other's 

eyes  and  laughed.      I  then  suggested  that 

he  get  his  draft,  I  mine,  and  that  jointly 

288 


PUBLISHING    " EVERYBODY S 

we  prepare  one  which  would  suit.  So  we 
stuck  together  the  torn  fragments.  The 
advertisement  was  sent  to  the  leading 
newspapers  of  the  country  and  was  a 
great  success.  Our  assistant  editor,  a 
most  intelligent  woman,  told  me  that  she 
read  it  without  realizing  it  was  our  own 
till  the  very  end. 

With  the  editorial  work  of  the  magazine 
I  did  not  concern  myself.  Mr.  Ridgway 
directed  this  department  with  the  aid  of 
able  editors,  both  men  and  women.  I 
did,  however,  reserve  the  right  to  pass 
finally  upon  the  contents  before  it  went  to 
press.  Occasionally  a  picture  or  an  article 
was  cut  out  on  my  suggestion  and  others 
substituted.  I  had  a  hand,  too,  in  "With 
Everybody's  Publishers,"  which  at  the 
beginning  was  a  strong  feature  of  the 
magazine.  The  department  "Under  a 
Spreading  Chestnut  Tree "  was  also  one 
in  which  I  became  interested.  In  fact,  I 
289 


PUBLISHING    " EVERYBODY S 

recall  that  I  paid  twenty-five  dollars  to  the 
man  who  suggested  this  heading  and  some 
stories  which  came  with  it.  The  stories 
were  returned.  The  heading  should  have 
gone  back  also,  for  I  found  out  later  that 
this  also  was  a  "chestnut,"  having  been 
used  in  a  New  York  paper  for  many 
months. 

I  was  always  eager  to  get  the  type- 
written copy  of  ' '  Frenzied  Finance  "  before 
it  went  through  the  editorial  department. 
Thereby  hangs  a  tale.  In  one  of  Mr. 
Lawson's  chapters  he  referred  to  a  "  meet- 
ing of  the  Board  of  Directors  of  the  United 
States  Steel  Corporation,  wherein  Mr. 
Henry  H.  Rogers,  having  made  his  invari- 
able plea  for  quick  action,  was  interrupted 
by  the  president  of  the  corporation,  who 
blurted  out :  '  Mr.  Rogers  will  vote  on  this 
question  after  we  have  talked  on  it.'  In  a 
voice  that  those  who  heard  it  say  sounded 
like  a  rattlesnake's  hiss  in  a  refriger- 


PUBLISHING  "EVERYBODY'S" 

ator,  Mr.  Rogers  replied:  'All  meetings 
where  I  sit  as  a  director  vote  first  and 
talk  after  I  am  gone."  Rereading  this, 
after  it  had  been  put  in  type,  I  found  that 
our  editors  had  changed  the  species  of  the 
snake.  Demanding  a  reason,  I  was  in- 
formed that  neither  did  snakes  inhabit 
refrigerators  nor  rattlesnakes  hiss,  but 
that  on  conferring  together  in  the  absence 
of  the  editor-in-chief,  they  had  decided  to 
let  the  refrigerator  remain,  but  to  make 
it  a  black  snake,  which  really  did  hiss.  I 
instructed  these  sticklers  for  exact  biology 
to  restore  the  sentence  to  its  original 
pungent  form.  A  few  days  afterwards 
Mr.  Ridgway,  who  was  in  the  West,  also 
noticed  the  alteration  and  telegraphed  me  : 
' '  Please  have  editorial  department  change 
black  snake  to  rattlesnake  as  originally 
sent." 

The  man  who  turns  the  pages  of  his 
magazine  in  slippered  ease  seldom  realizes 


PUBLISHING    "EVERYBODY   S 

the  labor  involved  in  its  preparation.  He 
appreciates  that  authors  have  written, 
artists  plied  brush  and  pencil,  and  editors 
racked  their  brains  to  provide  these  novel- 
ties which  instruct  or  beguile  his  evening 
hour,  but  of  the  enormous  mass  of  detail 
—  the  important  little  things  —  which  lies 
beyond,  he  knows  nothing.  Who,  for  ex- 
ample, imagines  that  the  weather  enters 
into  the  magazine  publisher's  calculations  ? 
Yet  it  is  one  of  the  factors  which  must  be 
considered  when  the  monthly  question, 
' '  How  many  copies  shall  we  print  ?  "  pre- 
sents itself.  An  April  number  issued 
during  the  last  days  of  March  will  sag 
dismally  if  the  usual  bad  days  are  passed 
before  it  reaches  the  news-stands.  In 
fact,  I  should  say  that  a  too  lamb-like  exit 
of  March  would  make  a  difference  of 
twenty  thousand  in  the  sales  of  an  edition 
of  half  a  million  copies.  The  caprices  of 
climate  aside,  it  is  never  an  easy  matter  to 


PUBLISHING  "EVERYBODY  s 

gage  the  size  of  an  edition  save  in  the  case 
of  a  gradual  increase  or  a  gradual  decline 
of  circulation. 

Or  take  the  cover  design.  Who  con- 
siders with  what  effort  it  may  have  been 
evolved  ?  In  our  early  days  we  had 
much  assistance  from  Ralph  Tilton,  son 
of  Theodore  Tilton,  in  handling  this 
troublesome  detail.  It  was  he  who  pro- 
posed that  we  have  autochromatic  plates 
made  from  actual  designs,  photographed 
down  to  the  proper  size.  While  our  first 
cover  was  not  particularly  artistic  —  it 
represented  two  hearts  cut  on  a  birch  tree 
—  it  was  yet  different  from  all  other  maga- 
zine covers,  and  caused  comment  by  reason 
of  its  sentiment  and  novelty.  He  formu- 
lated many  other  ideas  for  us,  suggesting 
them  often  in  less  time  than  it  takes  me 
to  tell  of  it.  After  "Frenzied  Finance" 
began,  the  endless  problems  which  came 
up  in  regard  to  business,  advertising,  and 
243 


PUBLISHING  "EVERYBODY'S" 

editorial,  crowded  us  so  closely  that  we 
all,  including  the  art  director — who  was 
very  capable  in  his  line  —  had  difficulty  in 
finding  new  designs,  but  in  such  emergen- 
cies Ralph  Tilton  never  failed  us.  Once, 
when  we  were  in  desperate  straits,  I  tele- 
phoned him  to  meet  me  at  the  Cafe  Martin 
for  luncheon.  An  idea  was  at  once  forth- 
coming. ' '  You  say  your  Lawson  article 
treats  of  stock  market  operations.  To  me 
that  suggests  bulls  and  lambs.  Why  not 
go  to  a  toy  store  and  get  a  bull's  head  and 
a  little  lamb  on  wheels?  Arrange  them 
artistically,  with  a  suitable  background,  and 
you  will  have  a  good  cover."  Whereupon 
he  penciled  on  the  tablecloth  a  rough 
sketch  for  a  design,  which  was  not  only 
appropriate  but  highly  striking.  Sugges- 
tions of  this  kind  stimulated  our  imagina- 
tions, and  I  believe  that  one  of  our  most 
effective  covers  was  that  of  a  tiger,  photo- 
graphed direct  in  its  natural  colors  from  a 
244 


beautiful  $2000  rug  that  I  happened  to  see 
in  the  shop  window  of  a  Broadway  furrier. 
I  had  read  the  manuscript  of  the  Lawson 
article  the  previous  day,  and  as  it  contained 
the  expression,  "This  cruel,  tigerish, 
system,"  the  beast's  eyes,  glaring  at  me 
through  the  glass,  brought  me  to  a  halt, 
and  in  an  instant  gave  me  the  idea. 

On  its  business  side,  as  well  as  in 
quality,  "Everybody's  Magazine"  was 
created  afresh  during  the  first  twelve 
months  of  our  ownership.  Abolishing 
the  cut-price  club  plan,  we  put  the  sub- 
scription list  on  a  stronger  basis,  and  in  a 
year  doubled  our  circulation.  As  a  nat- 
ural result,  we  also  doubled  our  advertis- 
ing rate.  When  we  bought  the  property, 
its  price  was  $i5o  a  page,  one  dollar  per 
page  per  thousand  circulation  being  the 
recognized  rate  among  general  magazines, 
though  an  extra  twenty,  or  even  fifty, 
thousand  is  often  given  for  good  measure. 


PUBLISHING    "EVERYBODY   S 

With  a  showing  of  three  hundred  thou- 
sand we  could  ask  $3oo  a  page,  and  on 
this  healthy  footing  we  already  stood  when 
the  publication  of  ' '  Frenzied  Finance"  be- 
gan to  increase  our  circulation  to  the  merry 
tune  of  fifty  thousand  copies  a  month. 


CHAPTER  THIRTEEN 

THE  DISCOVERY  OP  TOM  LAWSON 

|T  was  as  a  private  in  a  com- 
pany of  Hayes  and  Wheeler 
Cadets  that  I  had  my  first 
glimpse  of  Thomas  W.  Law- 
son.  That  curious  phase 
of  our  political  life,  the  torchlight  club, 
reached  its  climax  of  extravagance  in  the 
legion  of  plumed  knights  who  eight  years 
later  went  down  to  defeat  with  James  G. 
Blairie,  but  it  was  a  sprightly  and  pictur- 
esque factor  in  the  Tilden-Hayes  campaign, 
and  as  such  served  as  a  vent  for  the  abun- 
dant energy  of  the  youthful  Lawson.  I 
did  not  know  him  personally  then,  for  he 
was  a  captain,  and  even  in  campaign  clubs, 
captains  and  privates  are  far  removed. 


THE    DISCOVERY   OF   TOM   LAWSOPf 

But  I  heard  so  much  of  him  as  we  made 
our  noisy  crusades  about  the  suburbs  of 
Boston  that  his  share  in  this  boyish  epi- 
sode persisted  in  my  memory  till  our 
actual  acquaintance  began. 

In  the  twenty  odd  years  which  inter- 
vened, the  captain  of  the  torchlight  com- 
pany became  a  captain  of  finance.  If  a 
single  word  can  summarize  an  epoch,  the 
word  for  that  quarter  century  is  money. 
Colossal  fortunes  never  rolled  themselves 
up  more  quickly;  men  of  commanding 
intellect  never  devoted  themselves  with 
more  relentless  energy  to  a  sordid  ideal. 
The  ally  of  the  foremost  financiers,  Thomas 
W.  Lawson's  knowledge  of  the  inner  his- 
tory of  this  period  was  second  to  none, 
and  when  one  day,  disgusted  with  the 
methods  of  his  associates,  he  told  the  press 
of  America  that  he  meant  to  spend  the  rest 
of  his  life  —  and  his  fortune  if  necessary 
— in  showing  up  Standard  Oil,  our  silent 
a5o 


THE  DISCOVERY   OF   TOM   LAVVSON 

partner,  Mr.  Wilder,  was  struck  with  an 
idea.  Dining  with  me  that  evening,  he 
suggested  that  if  we  could  get  Tom  Law- 
son  to  write  the  story  of  Amalgamated 
Copper  for  our  magazine,  we  should  have 
something  worth  telling,  something  people 
would  be  eager  to  read,  something  which 
would  boom  our  circulation.  The  idea 
made  an  instant  appeal  to  me,  and  the 
next  morning  I  mentioned  it  to  Ridgway, 
saying  I  approved  of  it,  and  that,  if  he 
agreed,  I  would  attempt  to  secure  the 
story.  He  replied  that  Wilder  had  tele- 
phoned him  about  it  the  day  before,  and 
that  while  he  doubted  if  we  could  get  it, 
he  saw  no  harm  in  trying.  That  night, 
notwithstanding  I  had  received  no  answer 
to  a  telegram  inquiring  whether  Mr.  Lawson 
was  there,  I  went  to  Boston,  taking  with 
me  the  editor,  John  O'Hara  Cosgrave. 

As  a  preliminary  move  we  first  called 
on  my  friend,  General  Charles  H.  Taylor, 


THE  DISCOVERY    OF   TOM   LAWSON 

of  "The  Boston  Globe."  It  is  not  a 
matter  of  common  knowledge  that  General 
Taylor  was  one  of  the  pioneer  ten-cent 
magazine  publishers.  Launching  his  ven- 
ture under  the  name  of  "American 
Homes,"  he  was  on  the  threshold  of  a 
tremendous  success  when  the  great  Boston 
fire  of  1872-78  destroyed  his  editions  and 
plant.  But  for  this  he  would  doubtless 
have  set  the  pace  for  other  magazines 
instead  of  concentrating  his  energy  upon 
publishing  the  powerful  daily  so  ably  man- 
aged by  his  talented  sons.  Retaining  a 
keen  interest  in  the  field  where  he  him- 
self had  turned  so  promising  a  furrow,  he 
readily  gave  me  a  letter  of  introduction, 
and  as  I  have  often  known  trifles  to  score 
where  larger  artillery  fails,  I  thought  it 
expedient  to  ask  him  to  mention  that,  a 
Boston  boy  myself,  I  had  once  marched 
among  Mr.  Lawson's  torchlight  hosts. 
This  General  Taylor  did,  and,  as  Mr. 
262 


THE   DISCOVERY   OF  TOM   LAWSON 

Lawson  himself  afterwards  told  me,  the 
allusion  reached  its  mark. 

Our  first  attempt  to  see  him,  however, 
was  unsuccessful,  but  his  secretary  told  us 
that  we  had  interested  Mr.  Lawson,  who 
wished  to  know  exactly  the  kind  of  articles 
we  wanted  and  what  we  proposed  to  do 
about  advertising  them.  Then,  finally,  at 
the  close  of  the  day,  there  was  brought  to 
our  hotel  a  typewritten  paragraph,  un- 
signed, which  stated  that  he  knew  just 
what  we  desired,  but  not  being  certain  he 
wanted  then  to  begin  to  write  it,  would 
give  the  matter  consideration.  With  this 
showing,  which  might  mean  all  or  nothing, 
the  editor  and  I  returned  to  New  York. 

Now  foremost  among  the  personal  char- 
acteristics of  Mr.  Cosgrave  is  the  quality 
of  persistence.  He  had  assisted  Double- 
day-Page  in  editing  "Everybody's"  under 
the  John  Wanamaker  regime,  and  coming 
over  to  us  at  the  time  we  bought  the  prop- 
253 


THE  DISCOVERY   OF   TOM  LAWSON 

erty,  was  the  acting  editor  of  the  magazine 
under  Mr.  Ridgway.  He  had  already 
shown  signs  of  the  great  ability  which,  on 
the  establishment  of  ' '  Ridgway 's  Weekly, " 
later  won  him  the  full  editorship  of 
"Everybody's,"  at  a  salary  equaled  by 
few  editors.  At  the  time  of  which  I  write 
this  dominant  quality  was  even  stronger, 
untempered  by  experience,  than  it  is  now, 
and  in  the  hope  that  he  might  put  our 
business  in  so  plausible  a  light  that  Mr. 
Lawson  would  consent,  we  sent  him  back 
to  Boston.  It  was  without  doubt  his  reso- 
lute siege  of  the  financier's  outer  office 
which  finally  won,  for  after  many  days 
Mr.  Lawson  became  so  impressed  with  his 
persistence  that  he  granted  him  an  inter- 
view. This  talk  had  its  prompt  sequel  in 
a  general  conference  which  settled  the 
matter  on  a  basis  beyond  our  rosiest 
dreams.  In  his  characteristic  manner  Mr. 
Lawson  outlined  what  he  hoped  to  accom- 


THE  DISCOVERY  OF   TOM  LAWSOPf 

plish,  disclosed  his  remedy  for  the  evils  he 
proposed  to  attack,  and  then  stating  that 
having  looked  us  up  since  our  first  request 
for  an  interview  and  decided  that  we  were 
game,  told  us  that  he  intended  to  write 
the  articles  for  serial  publication  without 
payment,  and  to  advertise  them  in  the  daily 
newspapers  at  his  own  expense.  We  had 
secured  a  prize  unique  in  the  annals  of 
magazine  publishing. 

But  where,  it  was  often  asked,  did 
Lawson  come  in?  There  was  no  ready 
answer  to  the  question,  for  we  never  pre- 
cisely knew.  "The  Remedy,"  which  he 
explained  to  us  at  our  second  interview, 
was  only  to  be  given  to  the  public  after 
' '  Frenzied  Finance"  was  finished.  It  was 
his  belief  that  when  this  was  unfolded  and 
the  American  people,  with  the  great  down- 
fall of  the  trusts,  had  come  into  possession 
of  the  millions  ruthlessly  pillaged  from 
them,  he  also,  in  common  with  the  people, 
a55 


THE  DISCOVERY  OF   TOM   LAWSON 

would  reap    the    material    benefit   of   his 
work. 

The  profit  to  "Everybody's"  was  hap- 
pily less  remote.  Mr.  Lawson's  first 
article  sketched,  in  his  inimitable  way, 
what  he  meant  to  tell.  The  hors-d'oeuvres 
of  the  feast  to  follow,  it  whetted  the  appe- 
tite of  the  American  public  as  never  did 
cocktail  and  caviar  tempt  the  palate  of  the 
veriest  gourmet.  Nor  did  Jonah  open 
wider  eyes  upon  his  record-breaking  gourd 
than  we  turned  on  the  miracle  wrought  in 
our  circulation.  We  beheld  the  wonderful 
vision  of  owning  a  great  magazine  property 
without  the  long,  hard  preparatory  struggle 
of  a  "  Munsey  "  or  a  "  McGlure  "  ;  we  saw 
ourselves,  free  of  worry  as  to  personal 
needs,  possessed  of  power  to  continue  our 
work  for  what  we  believed  to  be  the 
common  good. 

Mr.  Lawson's  laurels  were  not  to  pass 
unchallenged,  however.     The  July  issue v 
266 


THE   DISCOVERY   OF   TOM   LAWSON 

wherein  "Frenzied  Finance"  began  its 
spectacular  career,  also  contained  the  first 
installment  of  a  serial  which  we  had  ar- 
ranged to  publish  long  before  the  Lawson 
project  arose.  In  the  early  autumn  Mr. 
Hall  Gaine  performed  his  annual  pilgrimage 
to  London  to  call  upon  his  publisher.  The 
latter,  having  transatlantic  connections, 
mentioned  to  the  author  that  the  circulation 
of  "Everybody's  Magazine"  had  made 
extraordinary  gains.  "Yes,"  said  Mr. 
Gaine,  "I  expected  it.  That  is  the 
American  magazine  which  is  publishing 
my  new  story,  'The  Prodigal  Son.' ' 

It  was  my  lot  to  have  many  interviews 
with  our  remarkable  contributor,  some  of 
them  intensely  interesting.  Indeed,  I  may 
say  that  although  I  have  waited  hours, 
even  days,  to  see  him  —  so  many  were  the 
demands  upon  his  time  —  I  have  always 
felt  repaid  for  the  delay.  A  fluent  talker, 
his  conversation  was  as  entertaining  as 
267 


THE  DISCOVERY   OF   TOM  LAWSON 

his  literary  style,  which  I  need  remind 
no  one  has  a  racy  vigor  all  its  own. 
These  visits  of  mine  had  mainly  to  do 
with  the  exploiting  of  ' '  Frenzied  Finance." 
At  the  time  he  promised  us  the  story  we 
had  discussed  many  suggestions  for  its 
advertisement.  One  was  that  we  ofier 
$5 0,000  as  a  prize  for  the  best  essay  on 
"Frenzied  Finance"  at  the  end  of  its 
serial  run.  As  Mr.  Lawson  put  this  for- 
ward as  the  condition  on  which  he  would 
give  us  his  story,  we  readily  assented, 
though  we  believed  and  eventually  per- 
suaded him,  that  there  were  more  effective 
ways  of  advertising.  The  regular  monthly 
announcements  each  involved  a  race  against 
time .  Magazine  publishers  usually  send  out 
the  advertisements  of  their  forthcoming 
issue  in  advance,  the  agent  mailing  them 
direct  to  the  newspapers  with  instructions 
to  insert  on  the  day  of  publication.  It 
was  never  possible  for  us  to  follow  this 
268 


THE   DISCOVERY   OF   TOM   LAWSON 

custom.  Written  by  Mr.  Lawson  the  after- 
noon before  the  magazine  was  to  appear, 
the  advertisements  of  ' '  Frenzied  Finance  " 
were  put  in  type  by  some  Boston  news- 
paper and  then  rushed  to  the  other  dailies 
throughout  the  country  by  telegraph. 
Once  in  a  while  the  announcement  would 
be  ready  in  time  for  someone  to  carry  it 
to  New  York,  whence  it  could  be  tele- 
phoned to  nearer  points,  like  Philadelphia, 
Baltimore,  and  Washington.  But  these 
occasions  for  economy  were  rare. 

Joining  him  late  one  afternoon  for  a 
twelfth  hour  consultation  of  this  sort,  I 
found  his  desk  heaped  high  with  a  mass 
of  letters,  telegrams,  and  checks,  all  in 
answer  to  one  of  his  large  financial  adver- 
tisements of  the  day  before.  He  was 
forming  a  $5, 000,000  pool  for  the  pur- 
pose of  selling  short  American  Smelt- 
ing and  certain  other  stocks  which  he 
claimed  were  grossly  inflated.  By  the 
269 


THE  DISCOVERY   OF   TOM   LAWSON 

action  of  this  pool  these  stocks  were  to  be 
put  down  to  a  point  near  their  real  value. 
Only  wealthy  men  were  invited  to  partici- 
pate, and  the  smallest  check  acceptable 
from  any  one  person  was  $26,000.  Tak- 
ing up  one  of  these  letters,  with  its  lemon- 
colored  enclosure,  he  turned  it  over  to  me 
with  the  remark,  "That's  a  good-sized 
check, Thayer."  Theamountwas$5o,ooo; 
the  letter,  which  began  "Dear  Tom,"  said 
briefly  that  the  writer  believed  in  the  pool 
and  would  later  in  the  week,  perhaps, 
double  his  subscription.  Both  letter  and 
check  were  signed  ' '  Russell  Sage. "  Since 
the  venerable  financier  had  been  handled 
without  gloves  in  his  articles,  I  was  sur- 
prised, but  as  the  check  also  bore  the  usual 
scrawl  of  a  bank  cashier,  it  did  not  occur 
to  me  to  doubt  its  authenticity.  A  few 
days  later,  however,  happening  to  call  on 
the  vice-president  of  the  Corn  Exchange 
Bank,  upon  which  the  check  was  drawn. 
260 


THE   DISCOVERY  OF   TOM    LAWSON 

I  asked  to  see  their  method  of  certification, 
and  then  perceived  that  the  $5, 000,000 
pool  was  short  a  distinguished  member. 
When  I  next  saw  Mr.  Lawson  I  told  him 
that  he  had  deliberately  deceived  me.  The 
wonder  in  his  blue  eyes  turned  to  merri- 
ment as  I  explained.  "That  was  fair," 
he  said.  "It  was  sent  me  as  a  joke  —  I 
passed  it  on." 

During  one  of  my  trips  to  New  England 
I  chanced  to  be  a  witness  of  his  sensational 
meeting  with  the  mining  operator,  Colonel 
Greene.  The  latter,  using  page  advertise- 
ments in  the  daily  press,  had  called  the 
author  of  "Frenzied  Finance"  a  liar,  a 
fakir,  and  a  charlatan,  and  stated  that  he 
proposed  to  take  an  early  train  to  Boston 
to  settle  with  him.  On  the  appearance  of 
this  advertisement,  we  received  a  telegram 
from  a  city  in  the  far  West,  addressed  to 
Mr.  Lawson.  It  ran  :  "Bully  boy.  You 
are  doing  a  great  work.  Others  besides 
261 


THE  DISCOVERY   OF   TOM   LAWSON 

Colonel  Greene  have  notches  in  their  guns. 
I  am  taking  first  train  to  Boston."  I  also 
took  the  first  train  to  Boston,  in  the  hope 
that  I  might  arrive  in  advance  of  these  two 
redoubtable  warriors.  In  the  morning 
papers  that  day  appeared  a  telegram,  sup- 
posedly from  Mr.  Lawson  to  Colonel 
Greene,  to  the  effect  that  as  he  had  much 
consideration  for  his  office,  which  con- 
tained many  art  treasures,  he  would  meet 
him  in  front  of  the  Old  State  House,  where 
the  blood  of  patriots  had  previously  been 
shed.  Crowds  thronged  the  historic  spot, 
but  Colonel  Greene  failed  to  appear.  On 
my  way  to  Mr.  Lawson's  home  that  even- 
ing, he  regaled  me  with  a  number  of 
interesting  episodes  of  his  earlier  life, 
wherein  attempts  to  assassinate  him  had 
proved  futile.  Securing  lodging  for  the 
night  at  the  Touraine,  the  clerk  telephoned 
me  early  the  next  morning  that  Mr.  Lawson 
had  called  and  sent  in  his  card  to  Colonel 
262 


THE    DISCOVERY    OF   TOM   LAWSON 

Greene,  who  by  now  had  reached  the 
battleground.  Hastily  donning  my  clothes, 
and  without  breakfast,  I  descended  just  in 
time  to  witness  their  meeting  in  the  hotel 
corridor,  and  to  mount  with  them  to 
Colonel  Greene's  apartments.  No  weapons 
were  used  in  this  encounter.  It  was  a 
battle  of  words,  in  which  the  author  of 
"Frenzied  Finance"  was  an  easy  victor. 

At  this  period  Mr.  Lawson  figured  in  an 
episode  closely  personal  to  myself.  I  have 
referred  in  an  earlier  chapter  to  the  touch- 
ing tribute  paid  me  by  my  friends  when  I 
left  Philadelphia.  It  remained  a  warm 
memory  in  the  years  which  followed,  and  I 
cherished  the  hope  that  I  might  some  day 
show  my  appreciation.  In  January,  igo5, 
this  thought  of  a  decade  crystallized  in  a  defi- 
nite plan.  I  decided  that  I  would  myself 
give  a  dinner  and  ask,  not  only  those  old- 
time  friends,  but  such  new  ones  as  had  m 
the  meantime  come  upon  my  horizon. 
268 


THE  DISCOVERY   OF   TOM  LAWSON 

Public  dinners  are  often  stupid  affairs, 
and  unless  a  Patrick  Francis  Murphy  or 
a  Simeon  Ford  is  to  speak,  they  are 
avoided  by  the  man  fond  of  home  and 
family.  Private  dinners,  without  some 
amusing  feature,  may  be  quite  as  unin- 
teresting, and  I  therefore  planned  that  my 
guests  should  be  entertained  in  some  novel 
way.  Given  under  such  circumstances, 
no  representatives  of  the  press  were  per- 
mitted to  be  present.  Nevertheless,  the 
newspapers  of  New  York  and  other  cities 
printed  various  accounts.  The  one  which 
follows  has  its  humorous  points : 

LAWSON     OF     BOSTON     BRINGS 
PROSPERITY   TO   MAGAZINE 

Publisher  of ' '  Frenzied  Finance  "  Series  Gives 

Dinner  at  St.  Regis,  on  Gold  Plates  — 

Lawson  Talks  over  Phone 

"NEW  YORK,  February  20  —  (Special) 
John  Adams  Thayer,  who  is  Secretary 


THE  DISCOVERY   OF   TOM   LAWSON 

and  Treasurer  of  the  Ridgway-Thayer 
Publishing  Company,  gave  a  dinner  at 
the  St.  Regis  Hotel  to-night  to  celebrate 
his  birthday  anniversary.  Incidentally  the 
dinner  also  celebrated  the  prosperity  of 
'Everybody's  Magazine'  since  it  became 
the  medium  through  which  Thomas  W. 
Lawson  of  Boston  exposes  himself  and 
others. 

"It  was  a  feast  fit  to  celebrate  a  six 
months'  hunt  for  the  money  devil.  About 
Thayer  sat  nearly  forty  congratulants. 
Some  of  them  share  his  present  prosperity, 
but  most  of  them  are  men  with  whom  he 
had  been  associated  in  the  past.  They  had 
been  invited  with  cards  which  were  en- 
graved in  facsimile  of  Thayer' s  own  hand- 
writing. As  a  cheerful  jest  they  had  also 
been  furnished  with  cards  entitling  them 
to  admission  at  the  front  entrance  of  the 
St.  Regis. 

' '  The  dinner  was  served  on  a  modest 
265 


THE  DISCOVERY   OF   TOM   LAWSON 

collection  of  plate  which  the  hotel  classifies 
as  its  '  special  banquet  gold  service.'  The 
menus  were  bound  in  brown  leather,  and 
included  a  letter  from  Lawson  to  Thayer, 
which  carefully  was  copyrighted  by  Thayer, 
thus  keeping  it  from  any  possibility  of 
reproduction  by  vulgar  newspapers. 

"Telephones  had  been  provided  at  the 
place  of  each  guest,  and  at  ten  o'clock  the 
inevitable  Thomas  Lawson,  who  is  in 
Boston,  was  put  into  connection  with  all 
of  them  at  once.  He  talked  for  twenty 
minutes.  Some  of  his  auditors  said  after- 
ward it  would  n't  do  at  all  for  them  to  tell 
what  he  said.  Others  said  simply  they 
couldn't  remember. 

' '  Certainly  Lawson  dealt  cheerfully  with 
the  host  of  the  evening,  and  complimented 
him  on  his  prosperity  in  battling  with  the 
armies  of  greed  and  their  vulgar  display 
of  ill-gotten  wealth.  Likewise,  he  said 
the  past,  present,  and  future  finance  was 
266 


THE    DISCOVERY   OF   TOM   LAWSON 

known  only  to  one  man ,  and  that  one  man 
was  at  the  Boston  end  of  the  telephone." 

Mr.  Lawson's  speech  by  telephone  was 
not  at  all  serious.  His  letter,  on  the  other 
hand,  struck  a  different  note,  yet  one 
equally  characteristic  of  the  man.  It  was 
entitled  "Looping  the  Life  Circle,"  and 
was  read  by  Mr.  Ridgway,  who  has  ora- 
torical abilities  of  no  mean  order.  Copy- 
righted as  it  was  at  the  time,  it  has  never 
before  been  published. 

' '  Looping  the  life  circle  is  the  order 
of  human  existence.  Old  Ringmaster 
Time  cracks  his  whip  as  the  man  steps 
out  upon  the  flying  zone  to  begin  his 
wonderful  journey  by  way  of  sunland, 
moon,  and  starland  to  the  enchanted 
chamber  at  the  world's  end.  Round  the 
great  orbit  he  swings  through  spring  days 
and  summertime,  and  above  the  music  of 
the  spheres  the  crack  of  the  Ringmaster's 
267 


THE   DISCOVERY   OF   TOM    LAWSON 

whip  signals  the  passing  years,  faintly 
at  first,  louder  as  the  mellow  autumn 
shadows  fall  and  in  thunder  tones  as  the 
circle  spins  into  the  hoary  regions  where 
Winter  is  king.  To-night  the  echo  of  the 
whip's  crack,  dimly  heard,  is  in  the  air, 
and  we  who  cling  near  your  rim  of  the 
circle  rejoice  that  its  course  is  still  in  the 
August  loop,  and  that  before  you  and  us 
stretch  glorious  days  of  racing  in  space 
amid  suns  and  constellations  hung  out  for 
our  delectation.  Afar  off,  indefinite  as  a 
dream,  is  the  enchanted  chamber,  so  that 
what  need  we  care,  while  our  grip  on  the 
rim  is  strong,  for  the  lightning  play  or 
the  bleak  wind  that  blows  in  the  wild 
waste  places,  or  for  the  gray  gatesman 
at  the  world's  end.  To-night's  flight  is 
through  the  perfume  of  stellar  gardens  ; 
to-morrow  we  will  pick  the  ripened  fruit 
in  Orion's  orchards,  and  before  Time's 
whip  cracks  out  again ,  who  knows  through 
268 


THE   DISCOVERY   OF    TOM   LAWSON 

what  Aladdin  realm  we  may  be  flitting. 
So  let  us  be  glad  —  glad  of  the  speed  and 
the  beauty,  of  the  perfume  and  the  vision, 
but  most  of  all  glad  that  Fate  has  set  us 
so  close  together  on  the  circle  rim  that 
while  the  echo  of  the  Ringmaster's  whip 
is  still  in  the  air,  we  can  clasp  each  other's 
hands  and  know  that  whatever  storms  lower, 
we  have  not  to  weather  them  alone." 

I  possess  two  personally  inscribed  books 
of  Mr.  Lawson's.  One  is  "The  Lawson 
History  of  the  America's  Gup,"  the  other 
"Frenzied  Finance."  In  the  latter  he 
penned  this : 

"My  DEAR  THAYER, — As  sure  as  water 
seeks  its  level,  released  balloons  the  sky, 
and  stocks  the  earth,  crime  will  hunt 
its  creator. 

' '  You  little  thought  when  General  Taylor 
sent  you  with  that  note  that  you  and  I 
would  be  condemned  to  travel  hell  together 
269 


THE    DISCOVERY   OF   TOM   LAWSON 

without  a  fire  extinguisher  or  insurance 
policy,  but  we  live  and  learn. 

"To  show  you  I  do,  and  that  I  pick 
blooms  from  the  bush  of  forgiveness  as 
I  travel,  I  wish  you  and  yours  a  most 
happy  Christmas.  Believe  me, 

"Yours  very  truly, 

"  THOMAS  W.  LAWSON. 
"  Boston,  December  a5,  1905." 


270 


CHAPTER   FOURTEEN 
DIVORCED — WITH  ALIMONY 


CHAPTER  FOURTEEN 
DIVORCED  —  WITH  ALIMONY 

»R.  LAWSON'S  great  serial 
began  its  course  in  July,  and 
as  it  is  customary  to  give  the 
cover  design  of  that  month 
a  patriotic  touch,  this  issue, 
the  best  we  could  produce,  bore  an  eagle 
with  outspread  wings  and  the  American 
flag  printed  in  strong  colors.  The  red, 
white,  and  blue  attracted  much  attention 
on  the  news-stands.  It  also  drew  the 
notice  of  the  Chief  Police  Commissioner 
of  Boston,  who  declared  that  the  American 
flag  was  used  as  an  advertisement,  and 
that  therefore  the  magazine  could  not  be 
sold.  The  newsdealers  in  Boston,  how- 
ever, always  ready  for  an  emergency, 
278 


DIVORCED WITH  ALIMONY 

decided  that  their  customers  should  be 
supplied,  even  without  the  covers,  and 
so  announced  by  large  signs.  Whereupon 
the  Commissioner's  decision,  of  course, 
got  into  the  newspapers,  whose  many 
comments  and  editorials  led  to  increased 
sales  in  Boston  and  vicinity.  Perceiving 
a  chance  to  help  the  sales  in  other  parts 
of  the  country,  I  made  a  hurried  trip  to 
Boston  and  had  a  talk  with  the  Com- 
missioner. He  had  a  charming  personality 
and  was  very  polite,  but  insisted  that  he 
must  obey  the  letter  of  the  law  and  pro- 
hibit the  sale  of  the  magazine.  After  my 
talk  with  him  I  gave  an  interview  to  the 
Boston  papers,  told  of  the  conference,  and 
stated  that  the  publishers  of  ' '  Everybody's 
Magazine"  had  no  thought  of  desecrating 
the  American  flag — in  fact,  that  we  did 
not  consider  the  cover  an  advertisement  at 
all.  Our  idea  was  to  encourage  rather 
than  to  discourage  patriotism.  Changing 
274 


DITORCED WITH  ALIMONY 

the  cover  of  the  second  edition,  which  was 
then  on  the  presses,  we  reproduced  in  a 
large  broadside  many  of  the  editorials  and 
items  referring  to  the  suppression  of  the 
first  edition,  and  sent  these  sheets  to 
the  editors  of  newspapers  throughout  the 
country,  requesting  them,  as  believers  in 
right  and  justice,  to  reprint  some  of 
them,  with  or  without  comment.  The 
fact  that  we  were  ourselves  large  adver- 
tisers at  the  time  helped  considerably, 
arid  the  immense  amount  of  free  advertis- 
ing which  we  received  resulted  in  the 
sale  of  the  second  edition.  In  many 
places  throughout  the  country  copies  of 
the  July  issue  were  sold  at  three  and  four 
times  its  regular  price,  and  extraordinary 
stories  reached  us  of  the  manner  in  which 
the  magazine  circulated  from  hand  to 
hand.  In  a  letter  which  came  to  us 
from  an  isolated  town  near  Quebec,  it 
was  stated  that  one  copy  of  the  July  issue 
275 


DIVORCED WITH  ALIMONY 

had  been  read  by  forty- five  different 
people. 

Then  began  the  incessant  call  for  back 
numbers.  The  demand  was  so  great  that 
we  printed  a  little  pamphlet  called  ' '  The 
Chapters  Which  Went  Before,"  and  this 
assisted  greatly  in  putting  the  story  in  the 
hands  of  the  public.  Although  the  August 
issue  exceeded  its  predecessor  by  fifty  thou- 
sand copies,  it  yet  fell  twenty-five  thousand 
short  of  the  newsdealers'  requirements. 
Month  by  month  we  taxed  the  full  capacity 
of  a  number  of  printing  establishments, 
until,  in  less  than  a  year  after  Mr.  Lawson's 
articles  began,  we  announced  an  edition 
of  one  million,  which  he  himself  had 
predicted. 

In  the  meantime  we  had  to  effect  a  revo- 
lution in  our  advertising.  With  our  cir- 
culation climbing  in  the  amazing  fashion 
I  have  described,  we  justly  felt  that  our 
price  for  advertising  should  increase  pro 
276 


DIVORCED WITH   ALIMONY 

rata,  but  as  it  is  customary  for  publishers 
to  give  notice  of  an  advance,  meanwhile 
taking  orders  at  the  old  rate  for  a  year,  we 
found  ourselves  in  a  dilemma.  The  un- 
usual situation  seemed  to  warrant  unusual 
measures,  and  we  accordingly  decided  to 
break  with  tradition  and  announce  an  im- 
mediate increase,  without  notice,  to  $4oo 
per  page.  To  impress  advertisers  with  the 
fact  that  the  occasion  was  exceptional  in 
every  way,  we  printed  this  announcement 
in  two  colors  on  Japanese  parchment  paper, 
and  giving  it  the  form  of  a  proclamation, 
affixed  the  signature  of  the  secretary  and 
the  seal  of  the  company  at  the  bottom. 
Yet  even  before  a  later  rate  of  $5oo  per 
page  was  established,  our  circulation  had 
so  grown  that  we  felt  certain  of  an  ultimate 
monthly  issue  of  a  million.  We  thereupon 
made  a  price  of  a  dollar  a  line  per  thousand 
circulation,  with  a  bonus  of  one  hundred 
thousand  thrown  in,  but  this  device  was 
277 


DIVORCED WITH  ALIMONY 

shortr-lived.  Advertisers  must  know  in 
advance  what  they  are  to  pay ;  otherwise  it 
is  impossible  for  them  to  arrange  their 
expenditure. 

These  rapidly  advancing  prices  made 
our  back-cover  page  very  costly,  for  this 
position  in  all  magazines  is  valued  at  four 
times  a  regular  page.  It  so  happened  that 
one  of  these  back  covers  was  for  once  not 
sold  in  advance.  A  week  remained  in 
which  to  find  a  customer  at  its  fixed  price ; 
I  was  in  a  quandary.  We  had  announced 
an  edition  of  a  million  copies,  and  this 
space,  which  at  the  old  rate  had  brought 
as  high  as  $2000,  had  now  doubled  in 
value.  Who  would  buy  a  page  worth 
$Aooo?  Then  I  had  an  inspiration.  Why 
not  advertise  it !  Such  a  thing  had  never 
been  done,  but  if  anything  of  value  could 
be  sold  by  advertising,  why  not  this? 
The  idea  came  to  me  in  the  early  morning 
—  at  the  hour  when  dreams  come — and 
378 


DITORCED WITH   ALIMONY 

it  was  so  realistic  that  I  awoke,  rose,  and 
wrote  the  announcement.  Then  I  sought 
repose  again  and  found  it.  I  also  found  a 
buyer  for  the  page.  On  the  very  day  of 
its  appearance  in  the  morning  "  Sun"  my 
advertisement  brought  a  customer. 

The  problems  of  the  immediate  hour 
were  so  exacting  that  it  was  impossible  to 
attempt  many  innovations  in  my  special 
province.  One  favorite  project  I  could  not 
carry  out  aimed  to  group  our  advertising 
in  departments  which  should  each  be  pref- 
aced by  a  few  pages  of  reading  matter. 
I  did,  however,  introduce  a  "Classified 
Advertising  Department,"  consisting  of 
small  announcements.  This  was  a  new 
feature  for  a  monthly,  notwithstanding  the 
fact  that  *'  The  Outlook,"  a  very  successful 
weekly,  had  inserted  pages  of  small  adver- 
tisements for  many  years.  This  idea 
proved  so  popular  —  some  sixteen  pages 
appearing  in  the  early  numbers  —  that 


DIVORCED WITH   ALIMONY 

other  magazines  followed  our  lead,  to  the 
profit  of  themselves  and  their  clients  alike. 
Our  contemporaries  also  paid  us  the  com- 
pliment of  borrowing  the  ' '  Index  to  Ad- 
vertisements," which  the  remarkable  bulk 
and  range  of  our  announcements  caused 
me  to  inaugurate. 

Those  were  roaring  times  in  the  adver- 
tising world  generally,  and  what  with  the 
growth  of  the  field  and  the  dearth  of 
specialists,  I  had  presently  to  pay  $i5,ooo 
annually,  with  a  contract  for  three  years, 
to  the  wonderfully  efficient  man  who  took 
the  burden  of  "Everybody's"  advertising 
department  off  my  shoulders. 

Giving  our  readers  the  same  number  of 
reading  pages  as  "Harper's"  and  "The 
Century,"  we  felt  that  we  were  entitled  to 
more  than  ten  cents  a  copy.  But  to  raise 
the  subscription  price  of  a  magazine  is  an 
important  step.  I  was  well  aware  of  this, 
for  "The  Ladies'  Home  Journal"  had 
280 


DIVORCED WITH  ALIMONY 

doubled  its  price  a  few  years  before  I  went 
to  it,  and  I  had  specially  studied  the  work- 
ing of  this  phase  of  publishing.  With  our 
mounting  circulation  and  low  advertising 
rate,  for  the  higher  prices,  though  an- 
nounced, were  not  yet  in  force,  profits 
were  small.  At  fifteen  cents  a  copy  there 
would  be  little  loss  on  circulation.  When 
to  make  the  change  was  the  problem. 
Then  one  morning  the  daily  newspapers 
did  us  the  kindness  to  print  the  statement 
that  "Everybody's  Magazine"  was  to  be 
suppressed.  The  attorney  for  Henry  H. 
Rogers,  of  Standard  Oil  fame,  had  written 
the  American  News  Company  that  if  the 
magazines  were  distributed  and  put  on  sale 
throughout  the  country,  action  at  law 
would  be  taken.  The  elevated  train  on 
which  I  rode  that  morning  seemed  to 
creep  at  a  snail's  pace.  Arriving  at  my 
office,  I  burst  in  on  Mr.  Ridgway. 
"  Now  's  the  time  !  "  I  cried. 
281 


DIVORCED WITH   ALIMONY 

With  the  dignity  of  a  foreign  ambassa- 
dor, the  active  partner  of  my  troubles 
leaned  back  in  his  chair  and  smiled. 

"  Yes  ;   for  what?"  said  he. 

"  To  increase  our  price  I  " 

My  co-worker  took  fire  himself.  In  a 
moment  he  had  our  printer  on  the  tele- 
phone, the  presses  were  stopped,  and  the 
change  was  made.  The  free  advertising 
given  us  by  the  magic  name  of  Standard 
Oil  was  so  immense  that  the  edition  for 
the  month,  though  larger  than  before, 
was  swept  from  the  news-stands  on  the 
day  of  publication. 

Our  horizon  was  sometimes  troubled 
with  clouds  without  this  silver  lining  of 
gratuitous  advertisement.  We  never  wor- 
ried about  the  money  for  the  payroll  or 
for  the  paper  or  for  the  printer  —  those 
nightmares  which  haunt  the  bedsides  of 
many  publishers  ;  but  we  did  face  breath- 
taking situations.  These  were  more  or 
a8i 


DIVORCED WITH  ALIMONY 

less  closely  related  to  Mr.  Lawson's  per- 
sonality. One  such  episode  had  its  storm 
center  in  a  picture  of  Mr.  J.  Pierpont 
Morgan,  to  whom  Mr.  Lawson  referred 
in  one  of  his  chapters.  Not  finding  a 
good  photograph  for  reproduction,  we 
asked  Mr.  Lawson  if  he  had  one  we  might 
use,  with  the  upshot  that  we  made  a  plate 
from  a  steel  engraving  which  was  in  itself 
a  work  of  art.  After  the  magazine  ap- 
peared on  the  news-stands  we  were  waited 
upon  at  our  offices  by  the  publisher  of 
the  engraving  —  a  limited  edition  —  and 
he  came  prepared.  He  had  with  him,  in 
fact,  the  law  of  copyright,  which  clearly 
stated  that  one  dollar  a  copy  could  be 
claimed  for  every  impression  we  had 
made.  Inasmuch  as  our  output  that 
month  totalled  seven  hundred  thousand 
copies,  we  were  liable  for  $700,000.  It 
was  a  most  interesting  afternoon. 

Another    incident,    as    disconcerting, 
283 


DIVORCED WITH  ALIMONY 

reached  its  climax  while  we  were  prepar- 
ing to  issue  ' '  Frenzied  Finance  "  in  book 
form.  Literary  friends  of  Mr.  Lawson 
had  advised  him  that  his  material  should 
be  rearranged  for  book  publication,  and 
to  this  he  agreed.  At  the  last  moment, 
however,  by  a  quick  decision  of  the  author, 
it  was  all  restored  to  the  original  shape  in 
which  it  had  appeared  in  the  magazine. 
As  we  were  very  anxious  to  publish  the 
first  volume  promptly,  this  embarrassed 
us,  but  we  pushed  the  work  forward,  and 
having  more  than  half  the  book  in  type, 
were  pluming  ourselves  on  our  wonder- 
ful progress,  when  Mr.  Lawson  again 
called  a  halt  with  a  long  telegram.  Our 
dismay  may  be  imagined  as  we  read  that 
he  preferred  another  style  of  type  and 
that  the  book  must  be  reset.  He  added 
that  it  was  one  of  his  constitutional  pro- 
clivities to  change  things,  and  referred 
us  to  a  certain  remark  made  by  District 
284 


DIVORCED WITH   ALIMONY 

Attorney  Jerome  at  a  public  dinner  in 
Kansas  City.  On  this  occasion,  which 
was  in  Mr.  Lawson's  honor,  Mr.  Ridgway 
had  used  this  language :  '  *  When  God 
needed  a  father  of  his  country,  He  raised 
a  Washington ;  when  He  needed  an 
emancipator  for  the  country,  He  raised  a 
Lincoln;  when  He  needed  a  savior  of 
the  country,  He  raised  a  Lawson."  Mr. 
Jerome,  who  followed,  paraphrased  this 
dizzy  flight  by  saying  that,  in  his  opinion, 
when  God  created  Lawson  He  needed 
someone  to  raise  hell; 

The  close  of  "  Frenzied  Finance  "  found 
us  issuing  between  five  and  six  hundred 
thousand  copies  monthly.  Long  before 
this  we  had  striven  to  produce  a  magazine 
which,  outside  the  Lawson  feature,  should 
be  well  worth  its  price,  and  hence  it  fell 
out  that  the  great  bulk  of  the  circulation 
was  retained.  With  an  increased  adver- 
tising income,  not  only  were  dividends  in 
285 


DIVORCED WITH    ALIMONY 

order,  but  also  larger  salaries.  Visions 
came  of  owning  my  own  home  and  an 
automobile  or  two.  The  magazine  was 
on  such  a  sound  footing  that  it  would  take 
years  of  mismanagement  or  extravagant 
expenditure  to  injure  the  property.  With 
the  advertising  department  in  the  hands  of 
a  capable  manager,  I  planned  to  travel 
extensively,  taking  turns  with  my  partner. 
I  even  thought  of  going  around  the  world. 
"  See  America  first,"  was  in  my  thought, 
however,  and  soon  a  trip  was  made  to 
California.  I  dined  at  the  Poodle  Dog 
in  San  Francisco,  fished  at  Gatalina  Island, 
saw  the  Grand  Canon  of  Arizona,  spent 
a  delightful  afternoon  and  evening  with 
Professor  John  Muir  on  the  edge  of  the 
Petrified  Forest,  and  returned  in  Mr. 
Wilder' s  private  car  to  New  York.  I  had 
been  gone  two  months .  During  my  absence 
ambitious  plans  for  the  establishment  of  a 
weekly  paper  had  been  hatched  by  Mr. 
286 


DIVORCED WITH  ALIMONY 

Ridgway.  It  was  to  be  a  great  national 
journal,  published  under  the  name  of 
"  Ridgway 's — A  Militant  Weekly  for  God 
and  Country. "  As  big  locally  as  nationally, 
it  was  to  be  published  in  fourteen  of  the 
largest  cities  of  the  country,  with  respon- 
sible heads  and  assistants  in  each  city.  The 
Washington  Bureau  was  to  be  the  great 
important  feature.  The  people  were  to 
be  told  exactly  what  the  Government  was 
doing  with  the  thousand  millions  of  dollars 
it  spends  every  year.  In  this  city  alone 
a  staff  of  from  six  to  ten  newsgatherers 
and  editors  would  garner  the  week's  history 
and  telegraph  it  on  Friday  to  each  of  the 
cities  where  "Ridgway's"  was  to  appear. 
Moreover,  it  was  to  haye,  the  Foreword 
stated,  good  wholesome  fiction,  with  honest 
sentiment  and  "red  blood." 

I  was  not  in  sympathy  with  this  gran- 
diose dream.      I  had  risked  my  all  at  the 
establishment  of  "  Everybody's,"  and  now 
287 


DIVORCED WITH  ALIMONY 

that  we  were  out  of  debt,  I  wanted 
to  see  a  surplus  before  I  gave  serious 
thought  to  another  publication.  I  there- 
fore advised  my  partner  to  put  it  aside 
for  another  year  or  two  till  we  should  be 
in  a  better  position  to  take  it  up.  Sur- 
prised as  I  was  at  his  determination  not  to 
delay  the  founding  of  his  weekly,  I  was 
still  more  taken  aback  when  the  project 
was  seconded  by  our  silent  partner.  Mr. 
Wilder,  during  our  business  life,  sat  as 
judge  upon  our  differences,  which  were 
few  and  far  between,  and  in  this  instance 
I  felt  as  confident  as  I  had  on  the  other 
occasions  that  he  would  decide  with  me. 
I  found  myself  in  the  minority,  however. 
Their  idea  was  another  "engine  fighting 
for  the  common  good."  In  my  own  life 
I  had  fought  long  and  hard  for  my  daily 
bread,  and  before  taking  up  the  fight  for 
others  on  this  colossal  scale,  I  wanted  to 
see  myself  so  entrenched  that  I  need  not 
288 


DIVORCED WITH  ALIMONY 

worry  about  personal  needs.  I  was  be- 
tween the  upper  and  nether  millstones. 
One  of  my  partners  was  blessed  as  few 
men  are  blessed,  and  in  addition  had  much 
of  this  world's  goods.  Mr.  Ridgway  had 
his  interest  in  the  magazine  and  the  am- 
bition to  plant  his  Excelsior  flag  on  loftier 
heights.  Divorce,  therefore,  was  the  nat- 
ural outcome,  and  it  came  quickly.  Dis- 
posing of  the  larger  part  of  my  interest  at 
a  price  which  was  considered  fair,  my 
alimony  was  further  swelled  by  the  con- 
tinuance of  my  salary  for  three  years. 
S.  S.  McGlure  and  John  S.  Phillips,  of 
"McGlure's  Magazine,"  parted  company 
about  the  same  time,  but  the  sentiment 
which  attended  the  break  between  these 
college  chums  and  intimate  friends  played 
no  part  in  my  separation  from  Mr.  Ridg- 
way. We  were  merely  co-workers  for 
three  happy  years  of  business  life,  not 
without  its  dramatic  moments. 
289 


DIVORCED WITH  ALIMONY 

Since  then  water  has  flowed  under  the 
bridge.  The  weekly  I  opposed  long  since 
completed  its  short  cycle  from  premature 
birth  to  early  death.  Its  nineteen  numbers 
entailed  a  loss  of  over  $3oo,oool  But 
"Everybody's,"  soundly  based,  has  gone 
on  from  strength  to  strength.  Even  as  I 
end  this  chapter  the  newspapers  tell  me 
that,  by  increasing  its  stock  by  three 
millions,  the  Butterick  Company  has  ac- 
quired "Everybody's  Magazine."  Three 
millions  of  Butterick  stock  for  the  publica- 
tion we  bought  in  1908  for  $76,000 !  And 
it  is  worth  it  —  even  more. 

Since  then,  also,  I  have  enjoyed  to  the 
full  the  vacation  I  have  earned.  The 
reader  who  has  followed  these  pages  to 
their  close  —  my  companion  for  thirty-five 
years  —  will  realize  what  this  has  meant 
to  me.  I  have  looked  upon  men  and  cities. 
I  have  circled  the  globe.  And,  indeed,  it 
is  a  small  globe.  Even  in  India  my  eyes 
290 


DIVORCED WITH  ALIMONY 

fell  upon  the  hoary  advertisement, 
"Mother  Almost  Gave  Up  Hope,"  and  as 
I  recognized  one  after  another  familiar 
nostrum,  exiled  from  its  native  land,  I 
perceived  that  the  heathen  in  his  blind- 
ness bows  down  to  more  than  wood  and 
stone. 

In  this  holiday  of  mine  there  comes  to 
me  every  now  and  then  that  sage  warning 
of  my  old-time  friend :  ' '  Don't  get  in  a 
rut."  Recalling  this,  I  think  of  men  who 
have  retired  temporarily  from  business, 
only  to  lose  all  desire  to  resume  their  share 
in  the  world's  work.  Then  I  ask  myself  if 
this  happy,  do-as-you-please  life  is  growing 
on  me.  Am  I  becoming  a  chronic  pleasure- 
seeker?  Am  I  falling  into  a  vacation  rut? 
And  I  say  to  myself :  '  *  Look  out !  " 


391 


CHAPTER  XV 
OUT  OF  THE  RUT 


CHAPTER  XV 
OUT  OP  THE  RUT 

IS  book,  since  those  last 
lines  were  written,  has  been 
published  in  three  countries 
and  extraordinarily  reviewed. 
It  has  been  variously  de- 
scribed as  '  *  The  worst  case  of  indecent 
mental  exposure  on  record"  and  as  '  'A  new 
departure  in  literature  —  the  firstling  of 
a  brood  of  auto-biographies  such  as  the 
reading  world  has  not  seen  before." 

It  is  perhaps  interesting  to  state  that  the 
first  of  these  critics  relented.  It  is  of  far 
more  interest  to  mention  that  the  second 
was  William  Dean  Howells,  who,  in  the 
April,  1911,  number  of  "  Harper's  Maga- 
zine," devoted  to  these  confessions  the 
entire  four  pages  of  his  Easy  Chair. 
295 


OUT    OF    THE    RUT 


A  book  capable  of  rousing  such  diverse 
opinions  was  naturally  hard  to  name.  The 
title  originally  selected  was  ' '  Divorced  - 
with  Alimony."  Being  in  doubt,  I  asked 
the  opinion  of  a  number  of  literary  friends. 
They  called  it  undignified,  misleading,  sen- 
sational. I  thanked  them  for  their  advice, 
but  remained  unconvinced.  Then  along 
came  a  man  who  pointed  out  that  the 
book,  if  published  with  this  title,  would 
be  listed  in  all  libraries  and  publishers' 
catalogues  under  the  heading  "  Divorce." 
This  struck  me  as  a  real  objection,  and  I 
regretfully  laid  my  first  choice  away. 

As  the  French  edition  of  the  book  was 
printed  while  the  English  title  was  still  a 
moot  point,  it  reached  the  book  stalls 
under  the  name  of  ' '  Les  Etapes  du  Succes, 
Souvenirs  d'un  Business  Man  Americain." 
To  me,  however,  the  book  stood  more  for 
progress  than  mere  success,  and  so  the 
American  edition  bore  that  old  Anglo- 
296 


OUT    OF    THE    RUT 


Saxon  word  '  'Astir,"  which  literally  means 
"  On  the  Move."  But  some  people  in- 
sisted on  pronouncing  this  title  as  if  it 
were  a  flower  rather  than  a  synonym  of 
activity,  and  for  this  and  reasons  more 
cogent  the  London  edition  was  christened 
"  Getting  On,"  for  in  England  "  How  are 
you  getting  on  ?  "  is  a  familiar  greeting. 
Just  what  problem  in  nomenclature  I 
should  have  had  to  grapple  with  had  t 
closed  with  the  offer  of  a  certain  Berlin 
publisher,  I  shudder  to  think  I 

Now  none  of  the  names  already  used 
seemed  to  suit  this  particular  edition,  and 
I  have  therefore  pitched  upon  ' '  Out  of  the 
Rut "  as  the  most  apt  and  expressive  label 
for  a  work  which  has  been  characterized 
—  and  I  think  justly  —  as  an  epistle  to  the 
unambitious.  The  reader  of  these  pages 
has  surely  gathered  that  my  idea  of  prog- 
ress is  to  keep  out  of  ruts.  We  are  all 
of  us  prone  to  fall  into  them.  Who  does 
297 


OUT    OP    THE    RUT 


not  know  the  man  in  the  golf  rut  who 
can  discourse  of  nothing  but  puts  and 
drives  ;  the  rabid  motorist,  whose  conver- 
sation fairly  reeks  of  gasolene  ;  the  liter- 
ary nuisance,  who,  completely  out  of  touch 
with  the  life  we  live,  thinks  only  of  books ; 
the  financial  bore,  who  babbles  ticker-talk 
every  hour  he  is  awake  and  not  infre- 
quently while  he  sleeps  ?  And  then ,  polar 
opposite  to  the  last  named,  there  is  the 
man  in  the  vacation  rut.  I  can  speak  by 
the  card  here,  for  the  vacation  rut  is  the 
only  one  of  which  I  have  ever  been  afraid. 
This  book  was  the  outcome  of  a  vacation 
which  threatened  to  degenerate  into  a  rut ; 
it  was  also  one  of  the  steps  by  which  I 
climbed  out. 

The  way  of  it  was  this :  In  the  autumn 
of  1910  I  returned  to  New  York  with  the 
intention  of  re-entering  the  magazine  field. 
I  enjoyed  life  abroad,  but  felt  that  I  was 
too  young  to  retire  permanently;  I  believed 
298 


OUT    OF    THE    RUT 


that  my  place  was  in  America  and  in  the 
business  I  knew  best.  From  the  vantage 
point  of  a  suite  of  offices  in  the  Metropolitan 
Tower,  hard  by  the  great  clock,  I  began 
to  look  about.  Vast,  powerful,  inspiring, 
the  city  which,  of  all  I  have  seen,  seems  to 
me  the  most  wonderful,  stretched  mile  on 
mile  beneath  my  eyes.  Would  I  again  be- 
come a  fellow  worker  with  those  millions? 
Then  to  my  eyrie  came  all  sorts  and 
conditions  of  men  bringing  all  sorts  and 
conditions  of  schemes.  Only  those  which 
had  to  do  with  publishing  interested  me, 
and  publishing  conditions,  I  straightway 
discovered,  had  in  my  absence  undergone 
many  changes.  There  was,  for  example, 
the  attitude  of  the  postal  authorities.  The 
new  Postmaster  General,  Mr.  Hitchcock, 
had  the  laudable  ambition  to  put  his  de- 
partment on  a •  self-supporting  basis,  and, 
like  his  predecessors,  saw  his  chief  ob- 
stacle in  the  prevailing  regulations  regard- 
299 


OUT    OF    THE    RUT 


ing  second-class  mail.  More  generous 
than  other  governments,  the  United  States 
had  been  carrying  magazines  for  the  pub- 
lishers at  the  rate  of  a  cent  a  pound,  and 
this  Mr.  Hitchcock  in  his  general  scheme 
of  reform  deemed  too  low.  His  proposal 
to  raise  the  rate  to  four  cents,  however, 
caused  something  like  a  panic  among  the 
publishers  of  ten  and  fifteen  cent  maga- 
zines of  great  circulation.  With  the  larger 
part  of  their  advertising  income  employed 
to  offset  the  manufacturing  loss  —  for  the 
subscriber  to  a  low  price  magazine  gets  it 
below  cost —  there  was  a  loud  cry  that  the 
proposed  rates  meant  deficit  and  ruin. 

In  addition  to  this  exceedingly  live  issue, 
there  were  in  particular  two  phases  of  the 
magazine  situation  which  I  realized  would 
make  it  difficult  for  me  to  locate  myself  in 
the  right  way.  One  was  the  tendency  of 
magazines  to  join  forces  in  groups,  domi- 
nated by  one  holding  company  and  one 
3  oo 


OUT    OF    THE    RUT 


set  of  men.  Though  a  logical  develop- 
ment of  the  times,  this  did  not  appeal  to 
me.  I  had  had  partners  equal  in  interest 
and  when  differences  arose,  as  they  always 
will,  somebody  had  to  get  the  best  or  worst 
of  it.  The  other  new  phase  of  magazine 
making  which  I  did  not  care  for  was  the 
all  too  popular  device  of  financing  an  un- 
successful publication  by  selling  stock  to 
the  public.  More  than  one  magazine  that 
had  sold  bonds  and  stocks  to  its  subscrib- 
ers was  deeply  in  debt  to  the  ' '  paper 
man"  and  others.  It  would  have  been 
possible  for  me  to  become  the  responsible 
head  of  one  of  these  companies,  provided 
I  had  been  willing  to  finance  the  concern, 
issuing  company  bonds  to  the  creditors  in 
the  rosy  expectation  that  the  interest  on 
those  bonds  might  be  met  and  even  divi- 
dends be  paid  on  the  watered  stock  of  past 
mismanagement.  I  realized,  however, 
that  to  make  up  this  grand  deficit  five  or 
3oi 


OUT    OF    THE    RUT 


perhaps  ten  years  of  hard,  incessant  work 
would  be  necessary,  and  I  decided  to  leave 
such  Herculean  tasks  to  younger  men. 

One  unusual  proposition  came  across 
my  horizon.  A  long  established  publica- 
tion, issuing  an  edition  well  into  a  mil- 
lion copies  monthly  from  its  own  printing 
plant,  could  be  purchased  at  a  price  ap- 
proximating three-quarters  of  a  million 
dollars.  To  finance  a  purchase  of  this 
magnitude  required  a  partner,  active  or 
silent,  with  much  money,  and  involved 
the  sentence  to  five  or  ten  years'  hard 
labor  aforesaid.  As  I  went  through  the 
building,  located  not  far  from  Brooklyn 
Bridge,  my  thoughts  reverted  to  that  dis- 
tant day  in  Providence  when  I  turned  my 
back  on  the  dingy  quarters  which  housed 
an  opportunity.  I  did  want  work  —  I 
was  seeking  it  as  I  had  sought  it  all 
through  my  business  career  —  but  inas- 
much as  I  was  not  forced  by  any  neces- 
802 


OUT    OF    THE    RUT 


sity,  I  determined  that  when  I  found 
myself,  the  location  and  environment 
must  be  agreeable.  Long  before  this  I 
had  planned  the  kind  of  publication  I 
wished  to  possess,  but  I  realized  that  to 
start  one  afresh  was  a  prodigious  task. 
If  either  money  or  organization  lacked, 
it  would  mean  failure.  To  be  sure,  one 
publisher  of  the  over-optimistic  type  sug- 
gested that  it  would  not  be  difficult  to  sell 
half  a  million  dollars'  worth  of  stock  to 
the  people  for  a  new  weekly  to  be  called 
"  Thayer's,"  but  I  had  no  taste  for  such 
methods.  I  sought  either  a  publication 
just  on  the  edge  of  success  and  needing 
to  be  pulled  over,  or  one  already  arrived 
which  would  benefit  by  some  money, 
more  brains  and  much  work.  If  I  could 
not  get  back  into  harness  without  imitat- 
ing the  stock-jugglers  or  becoming  the 
hired  man  of  a  combination,  I  would  stay 
out  altogether.  There  would  still  remain 
3o3 


OUT    OF    THE    RUT 


Paris,  Julien's  atelier  in  the  Rue  du  Dragon, 
and  a  dormant  talent  for  painting  to  fall 
back  upon. 

It  was  at  this  time  that  The  SMART  SET 
Magazine,  which  I  already  had  in  mind, 
was  mentioned  to  me  as  a  possible  pur- 
chase. It  appealed  to  me  for  a  number 
of  reasons.  It  was  well  established;  its 
exclusive  clientele  had  never  been  disturbed 
by  magazines  founded  in  imitation  ;  it  was 
practically  alone  in  its  field.  More  im- 
portant was  the  fact  that  The  SMART  SET 
had  made  money  from  the  second  year  of 
its  existence,  With  editions  averaging 
100,000  copies  monthly,  and  a  subscrip- 
tion rate  which  insured  a  profit,  there  was 
no  loss  to  be  met  by  the  advertising  sec^ 
tion.  This  seemed  to  me  to  be  the  most 
enviable  position  that  a  magazine  could  be 
in,  and  I  realized  that,  given  the  fair 
amount  of  advertising  to  which  it  was 
entitled,  The  SMART  SET  could  be  made  in 


OUT    OF    THE    RUT 


every  way  —  literary,  artistic,  typographi- 
cal and  as  an  advertising  medium  —  the 
great  international  fiction  magazine  of  the 
world. 

Many  publishers  had  negotiated  for  its 
purchase  without  success,  and  I,  too, 
would  probably  have  failed  had  not  this 
book  come  into  the  hands  of  the  owner, 
Col.  William  D.  Mann.  His  own  words, 
given  to  the  press  after  the  deal  had  been 
closed,  put  the  story  in  a  paragraph : 

"  The  SMART  SET,  which,  since  I 
founded  it  in  1900,  has  made  profits  of 
over  half  a  million  dollars,  has  been  sold. 
The  purchaser  is  John  Adams  Thayer, 
who  made  such  a  remarkable  success  as 
one  of  the  publishers  of  '  Everybody's 
Magazine.'  I  did  not  wish  to  sell  The 
SMART  SET  ;  it  had  bulked  large  in  my 
life  for  more  than  a  decade.  I  wanted  a 
publisher  for  it,  and  after  reading  Mr. 
Thayer's  business  autobiography,  'Astir,' 
3o5 


OUT    OF    THE    RUT 


which  appeared  not  long  ago,  I  picked 
him  as  the  ideal  co-worker.  Frankly,  I 
offered  him,  free  of  payment,  almost  a 
half  interest,  as  the  potential  value  of 
the  property  with  the  right  publisher 
would  have  been  very  great.  My  offer, 
for  certain  reasons,  was  declined,  and 
realizing  that,  in  Mr.  Thayer's  hands, 
the  property  of  The  SMART  SET  would  be 
better  conserved,  and  that  its  distinctive 
character  as  'A  magazine  of  cleverness,' 
given  it  by  its  first  editor,  would  be  not 
only  maintained  but  intensified,  I  decided 
to  sell  outright." 

It  was  on  February  aoth,  a  date  men- 
tioned several  times  in  this  volume,  that 
the  papers  were  finally  signed,  and  im- 
mediately thereafter,  with  an  enlarged  edi- 
torial staff,  work  was  begun  on  our  first 
number.  Since  then  much  has  been  ac- 
complished. The  old  friends  of  the  maga- 
zine have  remained  steadfast,  and  new 
3o6 


OUT    OF    THE    RUT 


readers  —  in  tens,  hundreds  and  thou- 
sands —  have  come  wherever  the  real  aim 
of  the  new  SMART  SET  is  known.  Much 
thought  has  been  given  to  formulate  that 
aim  in  the  strongest  and  briefest  manner. 
Here  is  the  result  —  The  SMART  SET  Idea, 
as  I  see  it : 

' '  The  SMART  SET  Magazine  has  no  mis- 
sion, social,  religious  or  political,  to  per- 
form. But  it  must  not  be  supposed  that 
it  has  no  purpose,  no  moving  spirit.  Be- 
hind it,  animating  all  its  pages  and  shap- 
ing all  its  activities,  there  is  a  very  Definite 
and  Persistent  Idea.  Its  Prime  Purpose  is 
to  Provide  Lively  Entertainment  Jor  Minds 
That  Are  Not  Primitive." 

In  a  word,  let  there  be  one  magazine 
which  will  make  the  world  forget  its 
troubles ;  one  magazine  which  will  pull 
the  heartsick  and  brain-weary  out  of  the 
rut. 

807 


INDEX 


Adams,  Samuel  Hopkins,  206 
Advertising,  objectionable, 

Mr.  Thayer's  fight  against, 

87-89,  198-206,  a35-a38 
Amalgamated  Copper,  a5i 
"American  Homes,"  262 
American  News  Company, 

281 
American  SmeltingCompany , 

269 
American  Tobacco  Company, 

'74 

Arkansas,  58,  5g,  61,  67 
Arnold,  Matthew,  7 
"Atlantic  Monthly, "the,  112, 

n3 
Ayer  &  Son,  N.  W.,  100 


Balmer,  Thomas,  no,  188, 
180,  io5,  221 

»7 '         «7      * 

Bar  Harbor,  Me.,  70,  161. 
Barber,  Mr.,  182,  i33,  i43 
Barr   Brothers   (St.    Louis), 

101 

Barratt,  Thomas  J.,  n5 
Barrymore,  Maurice,  xv 


Beacon  Park  race  course,  the, 

10 
Bellevue  Hotel  (Philadelphia) , 

121 

Belton,  Texas,  62 
Blaine,  James  G.,  71,  2^9 
Bok, Edward  W.,  80,  92,  io5 
Bonner,  Robert,  99,  100 
Boston,  Mass.,  7,  i4,  21,  82, 
4i,  62,  76,  98,  u3,  182, 
169,  160,  161,  i63,  i64, 
167,  168,  169,  178,  199, 
200,  202,  216,  217,  218, 
260,  25i,  254,  269,  261, 
262,  278,  274 
"  Boston     Commonwealth," 

the,  6 

Boston  fire,  the,  252 
"Boston  Globe,"  the,  262 
"Boston   Herald,"  the,   74, 

166 

"  Boston  Journal,"  the,  needs 
an  advertising  manager, 
i58-i6o;  acquires  Mr. 
Thayer,  160;  Mr.  Thayer's 
work  on,  160-170,  178 
Boston  Tavern,  72 


809 


INDEX 


Boston  Type  Foundry,  4* ,  42, 

45,  5i,  67,  66,72 
Boston  Unitarian  Associa- 
tion, 4 

Brady,  Mr.,  aa5 
Bright,  William,  64 
Brighton,  Mass.,  10 
Brooke,  Major-General,  172 
Burlington,  Vt.,  68,  69 
Butterick,  Ebenezer,  174 
Butterick    Publishing   Com- 
pany, 174,  179,  182,  210, 
ai6,  219,  220,  221,  290 

Gaine,  Hall,  267,  268 

California,  286 

Cambridge,  Mass.,  6,  10,  i4, 
i5,  74 

Cambridge  High  School,  12 

Carlton  Hotel,  212 

Caslon  Type  Foundry  (Lon- 
don), 5 1 

Castellanos,  Governor-Gen- 
eral, 171,  178 

Catalina  Island,  286 

"  Centennials,"  the,  n 

Central  Type  Foundry  (St. 
Louis),  4g,  5 1 

"Century,"  the,  280 

Century  Company,  226,  233 

"  Chapters  Which  Went  Be- 
fore," the,  276 

Charles  River,  10,  i4 


Cheshire  Place  (N.  H.),  176, 

1 88 
Chicago,  16,  17,  21,  23,  24, 

28,  62,  i56 
"Chicago  Inter-Ocean,"  the, 

34 

"Christian  Leader,"  the,  6 
Clark,  Mr.,  i34,  i43,  i44 
"Classified   Advertising  De- 
partment," 279 
Clarkson,  John,  u,  12 
Cole,  Edward  E.,  i6a 
Collier,  Robert,  206 
"Collier's  Weekly,"  206 
Constable  Building  (New 

York),  1 49 
Corn  Exchange   Bank  (New 

York),  260 
Cosgrave,  John  O'Hara,  a5i, 

a53,  a54 
Cuba,  170,  173 
Curtis,  Cyrus  H.  K.,  80,  81, 
84,  88,  gS,  99,  100,  101, 
109,  in,  n3,  n4,  116, 
117,  119,  197,  a35 
Curtis,  Mrs.  Cyrus  H.  K.,  80 
Cummings,  Mr.,  29 

"Daily  Hotel  Reporter,"  the, 

i4 

Deland,  Lorin  F.,  162 
"Delineator,"  the,  Mr.  Cur- 
tis advertises  in,  100,  101 ; 


3io 


INDEX 


reorganization  of ,  174,  176; 

Mr.    Thayer    advertising 

manager  of,  179-222 
Doubled  ay,  Page  &  Company, 

208 
Dwyer,  Daniel,  i£ 

Ellsworth,  William  W.,  233, 
234 

"Everybody's  Magazine," 
published  by  Mr.  Thayer 
and  E.  J.  Ridgway,  227- 
289;  obtains  "Frenzied 
Finance,"  254-a56 ;  first 
publication  of  "Frenzied 
Finance,"  267,  278-276; 
circulation  reaches  a 
million,  276 ;  increase  in 
advertising,  276-280;  sub- 
scription price  raised,  280- 
282 ;  success  of,  286-286; 
Mr.  Thayer  retires  from, 
289;  acquired  by  the  But- 
terick  Company,  290; 
mentioned,  186 

"Fanny  Fern,"  99 
Field,  Eugene,  io5 
Franklin,  Benjamin,  79,  116 
Frazee,  Jennie,  101,  102 
"FrenziedFinance,"  anecdote 
of,  24o-24 1 ;  increases  cir- 


culation of  "Everybody's 
Magazine,"  246;  its  first 
publication,  287,  278-276; 
how  written,  269;  brought 
out  in  book  form, 283-285; 
mentioned,  243,  a55 

Galveston,  Texas,  63 
Georgetown,  Texas,  62 
Goldsmith  Maid,  10 
Grand  Canon  of  Arizona,  286 
"Great    American    Fraud," 

Adams'  articles  on,  206 
Grceley,  Horace,  16 
Green,    Elizabeth    Shippen, 

IO3 

Greene,  Colonel,  261, 262, 268 
Green's  Hotel  (Philadelphia), 
79 

"Harper's  Magazine,"  280 

Havana,  170 

Hayes  and  Wheeler  Cadets, 

a4g 
Hayes-Tilden  Campaign,  the, 

349 

Holmes,  Oliver  Wendell,  10 
Hot  Springs,  Ark.,  5g 

"Index  to  Advertisements," 

280 
India,  290 


3n 


INDEX 


Jerome,  William  Travers, 

286 

Jones  Company,  J.  M.  W.,  27 
"Just  Get '  The  Delineator,' " 

216 

Kansas  City,  285 
Knapp,     Mrs.     Louisa.     See 
Curtis,  Mrs.  Cyrus  H.  K. 

"Ladies'  Home  Journal," 
the,  advertises  for  adver- 
tising man,  74,  75 ;  em- 
ploys Mr.  Thayer,  76 ; 
history  of,  80-8 1 ;  its  typo- 
graphical change,  81-89; 
Mr.  Thayer's  work  on, 
79-120;  mentioned,  129, 
i33,  157,  161,  186,  188, 
189,  2o5,  206,  217,  280 

Larcom,  Lucy,  6 

Lawson,  Thomas  W.,  in 
Tilden-Hayes  campaign, 
a49-25o ;  his  knowledge 
of  inner  history  of  period, 
25o;  story  of  Amalgamated 
Copper  proposed  to,  25 1- 
a54;  decides  to  write  story, 
255  ;  his  arrangement  with 
"  Everybody's,"  255-258 ; 
anecdote  of,  259-261  ;  his 
meeting  with  Col.  Greene, 
261-268;  his  friendliness 


with  Mr.  Thayer,  269-270; 

mentioned,  24o 
"Lawson    History    of    the 

America's  Cup,"  the,  269 
Lewis,  Alfred  Henry,  288 
Linotype.     See  Mergenthaler 

typesetting  machine 
Livermore,  Mary,  6 
London,  England,  5i,  147, 

2IO,    211,   267 

Longfellow,  Henry  Wads- 
worth,  1 4,  1 5 

"Looping  the  Life  Circle," 
267-269 

Lorimer,  George  Horace,  117 

"  Lowell  Offering,"  the,  6 

Luce,  Robert,  76 

Lucky  Box,  the.  See  "  Three 
Star  King  Lucky  Box" 

Ludlow,  Major-General,  170 

"  Madness  of  Much  Money," 

Lewis'  article  on,  288 
Massachusetts,  6,  208 
McClure,    S.  S.,    225,   226, 

289 
"  McClure's  Magazine,"  226, 

256,  289 

McKinley,  William,  170 
Mergenthaler     typesetting 

machine,  48 
Miller,   W.  F.,   198,    202, 

208 


3ia 


INDEX 


Mixon,  i55,  i56 

Morgan,  John  Pierpont,  aao, 
288 

Muir,  John,  286 

Munsey,  Frank  A.,  employs 
Mr.  Thayer  as  business 
manager,  120,  lai  ;  his 
ability  as  a  business  man, 
125-127;  letter  to  Mr. 
Thayer,  127-188;  letter 
from  Mr.  Thayer,  189- 
i48;  Mr.  Thayer  leaves, 
1 48-1 5 1  ;  his  hard  work, 
226 

Munsey  Company,  Frank  A., 
126,  i46 

"  Munsey 's  Magazine,"  ifag, 
i55,  286,  266 

National  Republican  Com- 
mittee, 107 

New  Bedford,  Mass.,  33 

New  Boston,  69 

"New  England  Magazine," 
the,  76 

New  London,  Conn.,  228 

New  York,  N.  Y.,  121,  126, 
i4i,  i55,  174,  202,  218, 
228,  284,  253,  269,  264, 
286 

"New   York    Herald,"   the, 

82,  99 
"  New  York  Ledger,"  the,  99 


"New  York  Sun,"  the,  279 
Newnes,    Sir    George,    i46, 


Oakley,  Violet,  ioa 
Ogden,  Robert  C.,  281 
O'Meara,  Stephen,  i5g,  160, 

i65,  166,  170 
"  Outlook,"  the,  279 


Paris,  xi,  212,  2i4 

Parker's  Lucky  Box,  198, 
200-202,  208 

Petrified  Forest,  286 

Philadelphia,  76,  79,80,  i44, 
i5g,  202,  217,  218,  25g, 
263 

Phillips,  John  S.,  226,  289 

Poodle  Dog,  the  (San  Fran- 
cisco), 286 

Pope,  Albert  A.,  226 

Potter,  Mr.,  76 

"  Printer,"  the,  8 

"Printer's  Ink,"  167 

"  Prodigal  Son,"  Caine's,  267 

Providence,  R.  I.,  36 

"  Providence  Times,"  the,  36 

"  Psychology  of  Advertis- 
ing," Scott's,  2i5 

"Puritan,"  the,  i33 


3i3 


INDEX 


Quebec,  27$ 
Quincy,  Mass.,  4 

Raymond,  Charles  E.,  i85, 
1 86 

"  Remedy,"  the,  a55 

Ridgway,  Erman  J.,  associ- 
ated with  Mr.  Thayer  in 
publishing  "Everybody's 
Magazine,"  227-289;  his 
"  Weekly,''  254,  286-290 ; 
mentioned,  181 

Ridgway-Thayer  Publishing 
Company,  265 

"  Ridgway  s  Weekly,"  254. 
286-290 

Riverside  Press,  10,   i3,  75, 

112 

Rogers,  Henry  H.,  24o,  24i, 

281 
Rogers,  John  K.,  42,  46,  4?» 

57,  66 
Roosevelt,  Theodore,  234 

St.  John,  James  A.,  78 

St.  Louis,  Mo.,  4g,  58,  63, 

101 
St.  Louis  Type  Foundry,  4Q, 

5i,  57,  66 
St.  Regis,  the  (New  York), 

264,  265 

"Salem  News,"  the,  44 
Santiago,  battle  of,  169 


"  Saturday    Evening    Post," 

the,  116,  117,  197 
Scott,  Walter  Dill,  2i5 
Scribner's  Sons,  Charles,  80 
Shepard ,  Norwell  &  Company, 

162 

Smith,  Jessie  Willcox,  102 
Spain,  170 

Spanish  War,  the,  168 
Sphinx  Club,  the,  197 
Standard  Oil  Company,  260, 

281,  282 
State   House,  Old  (Boston), 

262 
Sunday  Supplement,  the,  i65 

Taylor,  Charles  H.,  a5i,  262, 
269 

Temple,  Texas,  62 

Texarkana,  60 

Texas,  58,  69,  60,  63,  64,  67 

Thayer,  John  Adams,  father 
of  John  A.  Thayer,  6,  7 

Thayer,  Mrs.  John  Adams, 
mother  of  John  A.  Thayer,  6 

Thayer,  John  Adams,  his  an- 
cestors, xiii,  his  birth,  7; 
becomes  an  amateur  printer 
and  publisher,  8;  hisyouth, 
7-12;  early  work  as  a 
printer,  18-17 ;  goes  to 
Chicago,  1 6 ;  joins  the 
Typographical  Union,  22 ; 


3i4 


INDEX 


in  Chicago,  ai-33;  returns 
to  Boston,  3 a  ;  goes  to  New 
Bedford,  33 ;  begins  to 
solicit  advertising,  33-37; 
returns  again  to  Boston,  87 ; 
takes  up  typefounding,  4i- 
5 1 ;  tries  to  sell  patent 
hammers,  5i-5a;  returns 
to  printing,  5a ;  on  the 
road  from  Texas  to  Maine, 
67-74 ;  applies  for  position 
with  "Ladies'  Home  Jour- 
nal," 76 ;  employed  as  ad- 
vertising man  by  "Ladies' 
Home  Journal,"  76-95  ;  as 
advertising  manager,  96- 
iao;  becomes  business 
manager  for  Frank  A. 
Munsey,  lao;  farewell  din- 
ner in  Philadelphia  to,  I  a  i ; 
begins  work  for  Mr.  Mun- 
sey, 137;  letter  from  Mr. 
Munsey,  137-138;  letterto 
Mr.  Munsey,  iSg-iAS; 
leaves  Mr.  Munsey,  i48- 
i5i ;  looks  for  a  new  posi- 
tion, i55-i6o;  advertising 
manager  of  the  "Boston 
Journal,"  160-170;  visits 
Cuba,  170-173;  returns  to 
Boston,  178;  negotiations 
with  Mr.  Wilder,  173-175; 
advertising  manager  of 


"The  Delineator,"  179- 
222;  his  fight  against  ob- 
jectionable advertising, 
ig3-ao6;  his  idea  of  be- 
coming a  publisher,  3  a  5- 
337 ;  associated  with  E.  J. 
Ridgway  in  publishing 
"Everybody's  Magazine," 
337-389;  his  first  glimpse 
of  Mr.  Lawson,  3^9;  en- 
deavors to  meet  Mr.  Law- 
son,  3 5 i-s5 3;  experiences 
with  Mr.  Lawson,  a5g- 
370;  his  travels,  a86;  re- 
tires from  "Everybody's," 
389;  his  vacation,  390-391 
Thayer.Mrs.  John  Adams,  170 
"Theory  of  Advertising," 

Scott's,  3i5 

Thompson,  J.  Walter,  io3 
Thompson     Company,     J. 

Walter,  i85 
"Three    Star    Ring    Lucky 

Box,"   198,   2OO-3O3,   303 

Tilden-Hayes  Campaign,  the, 

3^9 

Tilton,  Ralph,  343,  a44 
Tilton,  Theodore,  343 
Touraine,  the  (Boston),  362 
Truth,    Francis,    198,    199, 

300,  so3 
Typographical    Union,    the, 

ai,  34,  28,  4i 


3i5 


INDEX 


"Uncle  Tom's  Cabin,"  i5 
United  States  Steel  Corpora- 
tion, :>.'\n 
University  Press,  i5 

Vermont,  68 

Waco,  Texas,  6a 
Waldorf-Astoria,  the,  197 
Walker,  Charles,  10,  76,  n3 
Wanamaker,  John,  a3i,  a53 
Wanamaker's,  160 
Webster     Grammar    School 
(Cambridge),  ia 


"Where  Independence  Was 

Born,"  Wilson's,  4 
Wilder,  George  W.,  178, 
174,  175,  179,  180,  181, 
182,  188,  189,  ai6,  319, 
aaa,  228,  339,  a3o,  a5i, 
a86,  a88,  389;  his  son, 
ai3 

Wilson,  Daniel  Monroe,  4 
Wilson,  Francis  A.,  91 
"Woman's  Journal,"  the,  6 

"Youth's  Companion,"  the, 
9' 


3i6 


OUT  OF  THE  RUT 


JOHN  ADAMS  THAYER 

PHIS  extraordinary  book  is  the  life-story 
*  of  a  successful  business  man,  a  man 
who  started  on  the  bottom  rung  of  the 
ladder  and,  by  dint  of  sheer  energy  and 
the  persistent  use  of  his  faculties,  forced  his 
way  to  the  top.  Few  books  published  in 
recent  years  have  excited  so  much  general 
interest  or  called  forth  so  much  enthusiastic 
comment  Mr.  W.  D.  Howells,  the 
foremost  American  critic  of  our  times, 
writing  in  Harper's  Magazine,  says  of  it  : 
"It  is  not  a  romance  but  a  piece  of  actual 
reality,  naked  and  unashamed;  not  the 
story  of  an  adventurer  of  any  sort,  but  of 
an  average  American  business  man,  with  a 
high  idea  of  hustle,  and  an  inextinguishable 
fire  of  energy  ;  the  record  of  opportunity 
made  or  seized."  He  also  speaks  of  "the 
breath-stopping,  hair-raising,  heart-to-heart 


frankness,  the  astounding  intimacy  of  this 
book." 

The  New  York  Times  says :  "  It  is  one 
of  those  illuminated  parables  of  success  fur- 
nished by  the  lives  of  so  many  American 
business  men.  It  is  a  great  book  for  a 
young  man  to  read,  for  almost  every  chap- 
ter is  an  object  lesson  on  how  to  get  along 
in  business  in  a  legitimate  way." 

The  Boston  Herald  characterizes  the 
book  as  "a  record  of  indomitable  pluck, 
ingenuity,  tact  and  perseverance;"  The 
Denver  Republican  declares  that  "men 
who  toil,  men  who  do  and  dare,  will  gain 
strength  from  the  reading  of  this  book;" 
The  San  Francisco  Argonaut  considers  it 
"  such  an  autobiography  as  Franklin  might 
have  penned  had  he  lived  in  these  more 
bustling  times;"  The  New  York  Press 
finds  in  it  "an  uplift  that  is  positively  in- 
spiring;" The  Washington  Herald  says: 
"This  true  story  is  infinitely  more  interest- 
ing than  most  novels  that  are  written  now- 
adays. 


The  Book  News  asserts  that  "  the  tone 
of  the  book  is  distinctly  American,  and  it  is 
the  American  manhood  revealed  that  gives 
the  work  its  appeal;"  The  Portland  (Ore- 
gon) Telegram  says:  "  It  reads  like  a 
romance ;  the  book  can't  be  put  aside  until 
the  last  line  is  read ; "  The  Chicago  Dial 
calls  it  "a  virile  tale,  set  forth  with  no 
maiden  coyness;"  and  The  Chicago  Bul- 
letin sees  in  it  "  a  wonderful  revelation  of 
life's  possibilities." 

John  Adams  Thayer,  the  author  of  the 
book,  was  formerly  one  of  the  owners  of 
Everybody's  Magazine,  now  owner  of 
The  Smart  Set  Magazine,  and  intensely 
in  the  public  eye. 


A     000130036     7 


(at     Books  and  Stationery 

^<         732  W.  6th  ST. 
'  ^        LOS  ANGELES 


